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COPnUGNT DKIWSlli 






1639 



The First Church 

In Stratford 



1889 



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THE 250th anniversary 



CONGREGATIONAL GHURGH IN STRATFORD. 



At a meeting- of the cliurcli held May 4, 188S, it was Voted, 
That the Two Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of this church 
be held in the month of September, 1889. 

The Standing Committee of the church was appointed a 
general committee to take charge of the celebration, with 
power to appoint, from time to time, such sub-committees as 
might be deemed expedient. 

The following; is a list of the committees : 

GENEEAL COMMITTEE OP ARRANGEMENTS. 

Eev. Joel S. Ives, Chairman. S. T. Palmer, 

Deacon A. T. Curtis, Carlos T>. Blakeman. 

Deacon C. C. Wells, Dr. W. B. Cogswell, 

Deacon S. T. Houghton, (.'lerk, James Tracy Richards, 

Deacon S. E. Curtis. Lewis Burritt. 

committee on reception. 

T. B. Fairchild, Chairman. Watson H. Smith, 

Deacon C. C. Wells, S. T. Palmer, 

W. E. Wheeler, Wilfred M. Peck, 

Edwin F. Hall, Henry C. Evans. 
Stiles Judson. 

committee on entertainment. 

Mrs. G. a. Talbot, Chairman, Mrs. E. W. Bunnell. 
Mrs. G. H. Spall. 



COMMITTEE ON COLLATION. 



Mrs. C. a. Tucker, Chairman, Mrs. 

Mrs. a. S. Curtis, Mrs. 

Mrs. S. T. Houghton, Mrs. 

Mrs. C. C. AVells, Mrs. 

Mrs. Elbert O. Curtis, Miss 

Mrs. C. D. Blakeman, Mrs. 

Mrs. a. T. Curtis, Mrs. 

Mrs. Kobert W. Curtis, Miss 

Mrs. H. F. Meacham, jMiss 

Mrs Josiah Booth, Miss 

Mrs. Charles W. Blakeslee, Mrs. 
Miss Ada Hublell. 



Syltanus Dickenson. 
Robert Miller, 
W. N. Ely, 
John W. Thompson, 
Myra Curtis, 
S. C. Lewis, 
Lewis F. Judson, 
Mary A. DeVinne, 
May Curtis, 
Mary Anna Peck, 
W. A. Stagg. 



committee on decoration. 



RuFUs "W. Bunnell, Chairman. 
Horace H. Judson, 
Miss Jennie P. Smith, 
Miss Alice C. Judson. 
F. C. Beach. 



Mrs. Howard J. Curtis, 
Mrs. W. B. Cogswell, 
Miss May L. Smith, 
Mrs. J. S. Iyes, 
Miss Nellie U. Sammis. 



committee on music. 



Henry P. Stagg, (^hairman, 
Maynard T. Smith, 
Mrs. Emma A. Curtis. 



Deacon S. E. Cdrtis, 
Miss Jennie A. Booth. 



1039. PROGRAMME. 1889. 



morNiMg service beginning at Half-past ten o'clock. 



Organ Voluntary, - - - . :\ri;. Maynard T. Smith. 
Doxology. "Praise God from whom all blessings How." 
Invocation, - - - - . Rev. George F. Prentiss. 
Anthem. 

Reading- of Scriptures, - - - Rev. Joseph A. Freemax. 
Prayer, - - . - Rev. Charles Ray Palmer, D.D. 
Hymn 1312. -O God beneath whose g-uiding- hand." 
Historical Address, - - - - Rev. Joel S. Ives. 

Hymn 1019. "O, where are kings and empires now?" 



Communion of the Lord's Supper. 

Rev. William K. Hall, D.D., and Rev. Franklin S. Fitch. 
Hymn 817. "Blest be the tie that binds." 
Benediction By the Pastor. 



Collation at the Town Hall at 12.30 o'clock. 



AFTERNOON SERVICE BEGINNING AT tWo o'cLocK- 
Organ Voluutary and Antliem. 
Prayer, ...... Rev. George W. Judsox. 

Address of "Welcome, . - . . .By the Pastor. 
Greetings to the Children and Grandchildren of the Church, 
Rev. William K. Hall, D.D., and Rev. Franklin S. Fitch. 
Response from the First Church of Woodbury, 

Rev. J. A. Freeman. 
Response from the First Church of Bridgeport. 

Rev. C. R. Palmer, D.D. 
Response from the Church in Newtown, Rev. J. P. Hoyt. 

Hymn 1309. " Great God of nations." 

Response from the Church in Huntington. Rev. A. J. Park. 
Response from the Church in Trumbull, Dea. H. L. Fairchild. 
Response from the Church in Monroe, Dea. W. Wells Lewis. 
Hymn. "God of our Fathers." 

Written for the occasion by the Pastor. 
Response from the Church in Southbury, Rev. David C. Pierce. 
Response from the Church in Bethlehem, 

Rev. J. P. Trowbridge. 
Response from the Church in Washington, 

Deacon E. W. Woodruff. 
Response from the Church in Roxbury. ..... 

Hymn 1030. "Christ is our Corner-stone." 

Response from the Church in South Britain, Mr. John Pierce. 

Response from the North Church of Woodbui-y, 

Rev. J. L. R. Wyckoff. 
Response from the South Church, Bridgeport, 

Rev. R. G. S. McNeille. 
Hymn 1046. "O God of Bethel." 
Response from the Park Street Church. Biidgejoort, 

Rev. H. C. Hovey, D.D. 
Response from the Olivet Church, Bridgeport, J. J. Rose, Esq. 
Response from the West-End Church, Bridgeport, 

Dea. J. W. Northrop. 
Hymn' 1141. " Jesus shall reign where'er the sun." 
Benediction. .... Rev. John G. Davenport. 



9 



eVeNiNg service beginning at seven o-cLocK- 
Organ Voluntary and Antlieni. 

Reading of Scripture, - - - Rev. Chaeles L. Pardee. 
Prayer, ------ Rev. Alfred E. Ives. 

Address, . - . - Rev. William K. Hall, D.D. 

Address, ----- Rev. Franklin S. Fitch 

Hymn 3GG. "In the cross of Christ I glory." 

Reading of Letters, etc. 

Address, - _ . . Rev. Henry M. Booth, D.D. 

Hymn 155. " The peace which God alone reveals." 

Benediction. ------ Rev. E. K. Holden. 




Clinicn DKCOHATrONS SEPTKMI5EU 5tII. (LOOKING WEST.) 



This programme, — with the single exception of no response 
from the church in Roxl:)ury, which did not have a delegate 
present, — was carried out with prompt exactness. 



io 

The exercises commenced punctually at the set time ; and 
the morning services were concluded in season for all to be at 
the Town Hall at the time appointed for dinner. 

The weather was exceptionally fine, neither too warm, nor 
too cool: a clear sunshiny September day. The various Com- 
mittees had each so performed the duty assigned to it, that 
nothing was left undone. 

The afternoon services began promptly on time and con- 
cluded at about 5 p. m. The readiness, with which the dif- 
ferent speakers complied M'ith the request of the committee 
to observe a time limit, enabled all named on the programme 
to speak, and there was no manifest weariness in the audience. 

Supper was served in the Town Hall at G o'clock. Servi- 
ces were resumed at 7, and concluded about 9. 



ANNIVERSARY HYMN. 



BY REV. JOEL STONE IVES. 



God of our Fathers, here we raise 
Our grateful hearts in joyful praise; 
Thy hand hath led us hitherto, 
Thy hand shall lead the journey through. 

Two hundred years and fifty more 
Since there arose on j'onder shore 
This ancient church; she lives today, 

Though centuries have rolled awaj-. 

\ 

Tlie story of her hopes and fears, 
Her struggles, victories, prayers and tears 
AVe tell to-day. The bright'ning page 
Unfolds our good!}' heritage. 

Faith, hope and love can never die; 
Recorded are her vows on high. 
Unnumbered souls— a glorious throng- 
Are witness to our prayer and song. 

Hail Ancient ChurcliI Lift high thy voice'. 
Tlirough centuries yet to come, rejoice! 
Tlie Church Triumphant waits, and we 
Shall join tlie immortal company. 



12 



The following is a verbatim report of the proceedings. 

INVOCATION. 

Rev. George F. Prentiss. 

Let us invoke the divine blessing. 

We render unto Thee, Oh God most High, our most sincere 
thanks for ancestors who were so clear in their convictions and 
steady in their testimony ; that the mist of the years has not 
dimmed their conviction, or the clearness of their testimony. 
We thank Thee that we are this morning permitted to meet, 
so many of us, in this aged representation of their convictions 
that we can come and receive the advantage and the benefit 
of what they have done. Oh God, we thank Thee for Chris- 
tian fathers and grandfathers of the many generations back. 
And now, Father, we invoke Thy divine blessing upon this 
dajs upon this celel)ration, upon this waiting congregation. 
May all things done here to-day be done to the honor and to 
the glory of Thy great and holy name. And as Thou didst in 
the da^'s gone by, help those christians to do their duty well, 
to honor Thee with all their powers, so do Thou to-day help 
us to do our duty, to so stand np for the truth and righteous- 
ness, as that we shall be loyal to the thought and the convic- 
tion of truth and righteousness which is in our own lives. So 
add Thy blessing to us that what we shall do here to-day may 
continue in its influence to the generations to come. Do Thou 
be a God of righteousness and truth and of tender mercy unto 
our children even to the third and the fourth generation. Do 
Thou so mold our nation and the thoughts of our men, who 
are in prominent places, that their truth and their justice may 
be the truth and justice of God. So influence this nation 
that all may be transformed into a nation which shall fear God 
and honor his commandments. Do Thou hasten the time by 
the fidelity and the loyalty of Thy servants and children here 
upon earth ; hasten the time by this means, when all men shall 
acknowledge God as Father of all, and King of Kings in all 
lands. And to the Father, and to the Son, and Holy Spirit 
we render thanks, not only to-day but in that endless eternity 
which is to come. Amen. 



13 



An anthem by the choir, and the reading of the 89th Psahn, 
by Rev. J. A. Freeman. 



PRAYER. 

Rev. Charles Ray Palmer, D.D. 

Let us unite in prayer. 

Almighty and everlasting God, the hope of Thy Churches, 
the dwelling place of Thy people in all generations, to the 
uttermost ends of the earth, we rejoice to call to remembrance 
Thine eternity. Thy changelessness, in contrast to our trans- 
itory lives, and to the many changes by which they are 
chequered. We rejoice that Thy years have no end and Thy 
mercies are without number, and from one generation to an- 
other Thou art faithful, gracious, full of compassion, slow to 
anger, plenteous in mercy, giving liberally and upbraiding not. 
We thank Thee, O God, that in Thy providence the fathers of 
this church were led to associate themselves together and 
covenant with one another and with Thee, for the maintaining- 
of the gospel, and for the furtherance of Christian education. 
We thank Thee from the beginning, through so many genera- 
tions. Thy favor has preserved this ancient church, and, as we 
believe, has made it a bulwark of truth and righteousness, a 
fountain of Christian influence, a blessing unto many. And 
we praise Thee for all by which Thou hast signalized Thine 
acceptance of the prayers, the labor and the sacrifices and the 
offerings of Thy people unto this day. We are reminded of 
many contrasts between the present and the past, the i-)eriod 
seeming so long unto us, although but as yesterday when it 
is past, unto Thee. We recognize Thy good hand in the con- 
tinuance of this church unto this time ; and we render Thee 
thanks that Thou hast here educated in Thy fear and in the 
knowledge of Thy truth and in godliness, so many who have 
gone hence into various parts of our land, carrying with them 
Christian knowledge and character to lead useful lives where 
Thy providence has called them. We thank Thee that there 
are so many that have here magnified Thy grace, the exceed- 
ing gracious words whereon Thou hast caused us to hope in 



eTHx gWHMrataoE. aud that so manr have lesrned here the 
W03 - - are found eternal life and gone hence to 

joii. .:mphant~ We cumot but IviieTe with 

great gratitude they rejoice ^th us in the memories that are 
rerived this daj, and feel a new thankfulness unto G\xl that 
His grace \iras rerealed unto them here. TTe praj Thee, Our 
Father, that these Hit servants, upon whom such an inheri- 
tance has descended, mar ever be mindful of it. We pray 
Thee that they may not for^t their goodly heritage of Chris- 
tian tradition, their gxX' " .^ of Christian memories, 
their goodly heritage of i. ; . opportunity: and we pray 
Thee that every one now . :< A with this church may feel 
this day that a new dignity ..:' - .nto his calling in this 
church and a new burden of rt ^^ .„.-.- .jty is pressed upon his 
heart- We pray Thee that Thou wilt continue to estabUsh 
Thy j^thfulness unto those who are here and unto those who 
ishall come after. Show mercy unto Thy servants and salva- 
ticHi onto their children. Here may Thy name be honored, 
here may Thy truth be testified, here may Tby grace be shown, 
here may the power of Thy salvation be illustrated for gene- 
rations that are io come. We praise Thee, O Lord, that we 
may Tiith so much confidence address ourselves unto Thee. 
We praiise Thee that Thou hast so fully revealed imto us Thy 
character, that our hearts are filled with confidence and affec- 
tion towards Thee. O help us to be willing and obedient to 
Thyself. Help us to be loyal unto our Lord and Saviour, our 
Prince and the King of righteousness. Help us to be mind- 
ful of our own blessed heritage in His everlasting gospel. O 
thai we may. every one of us, feel in the depth of our hearts 
the power of that gospel and may our hves be sanctified 
by m<^ms of it, so that we shall show forth the excellen- 
cies of Christ our Saviour and hold forth the Word of 
Life, not only here, but whithersoever Thou shalt lead us 
in Thy providence. O Lord, our personal hope is in Thee. 
Our hope is in Thee concerning the families of this people 
and all the churches that are here represented and .ill the 
churches of our land. O Lord, buil4 up Thy kingdom in 
this nation. Sanctify this nation unto Thvself. Hake it a 



15 



people to Thy praise. ^Make it a light unto the nations of the 
earth. Send forth Thy light and Thy truth from it, even unto 
the ends of the earth, and niay the glory of God be revealed 
until all flesh shall see it. We humbly lay before Thee all the 
desires of our hearts. Especially do we pray that we may 
worthily perform whatever rests upon us to do this day, and 
may we humbly accept all that Thou hast appointed us to do 
and in all the ways in which Thou shalt lead us. We are mind- 
ful that we stand only in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ ; 
and we lift our hearts rejoicing that He hath made us a priest- 
hood unto God the Father. And in the access which we have 
unto him by grace do we pray as He taught us in His name: 
Our Father who art in Heaven, Hallowed be Thy name, Thy 
kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. 
Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespas- 
ses as we forgive them who trespass against us; and lead us 
not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For Thine is 
the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen. 



HISTORICAL ADDRESS 



BY THE PASTOR, KEV. JOEL S. IVES. 



Since the beginning of tlie world there never was a time, 
when history was made so rapidl}^, as during the lifetime of 
the present generation ; and in all the world no other country 
has equalled ours in this respect. This fact makes it difficult 
for us to appreciate the condition of things two hundred and 
tifty years ago, while it also gives a special interest and value 
to every effort to bring down into the present the events of 
the long past and transcribe them for future reference. Since 
1876 the historical spirit has been quickened and henceforth 
American History will take a place of increasing honor in the 
thoughts of men. 

It is with just pride that we contemplate to-day, the long 
record of this Church of Jesus Christ. It is an honor, not 
lightly to be esteemed, to be a descendant of this 

"Pure republic, wild, yet strong. 
A ' fierce democracie,' where all arc true 
To what themselves have voted ;'" 

and, as well, to serve such a people, where 

" They reverence their priest, but disagreeing 
In price or creed, dismiss him without fear." 

Her long story is not now told for the first time. Swan, 
Cothren, Orcutt, and others also, have been faithful laborers 
in this field. Whatever of value this discourse may have will 
be the fulfillment of the Master's word, '■ others have labored 
and ye are entered into their labor." 

The beautiful shores of Long Island Sound, with the inflow- 
ing rivers of sweet water, with the many inlets and land-locked 
retreats, Avith the abundant provision for food and clothing. 



17 



were for untold years the favorite haunts of the North Amer- 
ican Indians. The Mohicans aj^pear to have come from the 
region of the Hudson River to the valley of the Housatonic, 
which they named Poo-ta-tuck, meaning "falls river," from 
the falls near Kent, where they made their first camps. Sail- 
ing down the river in their canoes, they established camping 
places till they reached the Sound, and here there was found, 
by the first Englishmen who came to Stratford, a clan called 
Cuph eags, which means literally " a place shut in." For how 
many years this most beautiful haven, formed by the broad 
mouth of the river and the sheltering arms of Milford Beach 
and Stratford Point, had been occupied by the red man, it is 
impossible to say. Their records, though abundant, are rude 
and vague. But that, as eai'ly as 1C37, white men had visited 
these shores, is shown by the testimony of Thomas Stanton, 
who was for many years the Indian interpreter at Hartford. 
He declares that the Connecticut colony conquered the Pe- 
quots and Pequannocks in 1G37 and took hostages from the 
Pequannock Indians. He also writes that in March of that 
year they found in Milford "only one house or the karkise of 
one." In 1G38, Roger Ludlow, the brother-in-law of William 
Endicott, with others, emigrated into Pequonnock and Un- 
cowa. We have, therefore, the record of John Winthrop 
with his company at Saybrook in 1635 ; of Mr. Davenport at 
New Haven in 1638; with earlier expeditions as far as Stam- 
ford in 1637 and 1638, while in the spring of 1639, Mr. Prud- 
den and his people settled in Milford, and the same year a 
number of families settled upon this most " beautiful spot of 
earth," with whose sacrifices, struggles, achievements, and far 
reaching results, through two centuries and a half — the Church 
of Christ of Stratford — our record has to do to-day. 

There is no documentary evidence of the organization of 
this church, as the records to the year 1675 have been lost. 
But there is abundant circumstantial evidence that the church 
began its existence as early as 1639, and probably during the 
summer of that year. I will only take the time to give one 
item. According to the records of the General Court in Octo- 
ber, 1639, this plantation was so far settled that "Sergeant 
2 



18 



Nichols" was assigned "to train the men and exercise them 
in mihtary discipline," and they were given "jiower to choose 
seven men from among themselves"' who should decide "dif- 
ferences and controversies under 40s." The record also shows 
that there was a difference between Mr. Prudden and the 
" Pequonuock plantation" as to the boundaries between them. 
^Colonial Records i. 36.) It would seem evident that Rev. 
Adam Blakeman and his company had arrived from Wethers- 
field before this order of the Court, for without them there 
would have been too few to meet the conditions of the case. 
If, therefore, Mr. Blakeman, with a considerable number of 
families, was here in 1639, there is sufficient reason to put the 
date of organization in that year, for the sentiment of our 
fathers was well expressed by John Davenport when he said : 
"If we build the Lord's house, the Lord will build our house." 
And as the late Prof. Johnson says in his excellent study of 
the Commonwealth — Democracy of Connecticut: "It Avould 
hardly be too strong to say that the establishment of the town 
and of the church was coincident: the universal agreement in 
religion made town government and church government but 
two sides of the same medal, and the same persons took part 
in both." 

Rev. Adam Blakeman was born in Staffordshire, England, 
in 1598, and entered Christ's College, Oxford, when nineteen 
years of age. Cotton Mather writes of him: "He was a use- 
ful preacher of the gospel, first in Licestershire, then in Der- 
byshire, England." A "desirable company of the faithful" 
followed this "holy man" from England, and by w'ay of 
"Wethersfield came to Stratford as early as 1639, making their 
settlement at the bend of the creek in Sandy Hollow where 
the Indians for many years had encamped. Excejjt for this 
company the settlement seems to have been made by individ- 
uals and not by organized association. 

Mr. Blakeman's ministry continued till his death, Septem- 
ber 7, 1665, at the age of sixty-seven years. Of his writings 
only his will remains extant, but from a brief Jiotice by Mather, 
we may be confident of his learning, j^rudence, and piety. 
There is this testimony also from Rev. Thomas Hooker, who 



19 



said of him: "for the sake of the sacred and solemn simplicity 
of the discourse of this worthy man, if I might have my 
choice, I would choose to live and die under Mr. Blakeman's 
ministry." His will makes plain that he was a member of the 
Synod from 1646 to 1648, which di'ew up the Cambridge plat- 
form, and concerning this he writes that he "could never 
(through the grace of Christ) see cause to receive any other 
judgment, nor fall from those principals so solemnly backed 
with Scripture, and arguments which none yet could overturn.'' 

In 1651, "by the town in public meeting, it was agreed that 
Mr. Blakeman shall have sixty-three pounds and pay part of 
his own rate;" which would indicate a good degree of pros- 
perity at that early date. His home was at Sandy Hollow 
just west of the site of the first Meetiug-House. The first 
Parsonage lot recorded was on Watch Hill, running south to 
Stratford avenue. 

In April, 1655, five months before the death of Mr. Blake- 
man, the town voted to call Rev. Israel Chauncey "to help 
Mr. Blakeman in the ministry for a year," and in June, 1666, 
there was a "nuitual agreement for his settling amongst us 
in Stratford." Mr. Chauncey, the son of Rev. Charles Chaun- 
cey, the president of Harvard College, Avas born in Scit- 
uate, Mass., in 1644. and graduated at Harvard in 1661. His 
studies included medicine and mathematics as well as theol- 
ogy, and during the troublous times of the Narragausett wai% 
he was appointed one of the council of the army, and by this 
council was ordered to "go forth with the army as their 
chirui-gion." He Avas actively engaged during the later years 
of his life in founding Yale College, and November 11, 1701, 
was chosen the Rector of the institution, but declined the 
honor, probablj' on account of failing health, for he died soon 
after, March 4, 1703. His nephew, Nathaniel Chauncey, who 
was the first graduate of Yale in 1702, was called, with but 
one dissenting vote, to the vacant pastorate, but he declined, 
and for six years the church was without a settled pastor. 

Israel Chauncey was a prominent and honored name in the 
Colony. His ministry of thirty-eight years, including times 
of war with the Indians, ecclesiastical diflferences resulting in 



20 



the division of the church, the building of a new meeting- 
house, with its change of location, proves not alone his "high 
reputation for scholarship," but his wisdom in affairs, patience 
and skill in guiding the thoughts of men. and a "dignity of 
character" and Christian spirit which secured for himself the 
respect and honor of all. It is an untold blessing that for 
more than one-third of a century this church grew up under 
the influence of such a man. It is the longest pastorate in 
the history of the church. 

From the time of the first call to Mr. Chauncey by the town 
in April. 1665, there seems to have been a division in senti- 
ment, for at this meeting "word was given to draw to the 
west side of the meeting-house, and it was clearly evident " 
that the vote was carried by "the major part." A paper sent 
to the new pastor in 1666, by the selectmen, calls for a "mu- 
tual agreement "" in regard to " the preaching of the word and 
the administering of the sacrament," in accordance with what 
is known as the " Half-way Covenant " practice. There are 
also two letters, written in January, and in February, signed 
by eight men. two of them being also upon the board of select- 
men, in which they tell their " loving brethren and friends " 
that "there hath beene difference about the calling of Mr. 
Chauncey, and several of us have declared our objections 
against his settling amongst us till those objections were an- 
swered, and we judge they never were unto satisfaction. " The 
"church answer to the men" admits their desire for the "iu. 
crease and enlargement of ye church when it may be attained 
in a rulable and satisfactory way." but " plainly " declares 
"that we cannot at present see how it will stand with the 
flory of God, the peace of ye church and our and your mutual 
edification for you to embody with us in this society." 

In December, 1666, by the vote of the town, the salary of 
Mr. Chauncey was fixed at sixty pounds, (this was afterwards 
increased to one hundred and twelve pounds,) and at the same 
meeting it was voted to divide the parsonage lot. giving one- 
quai'ter part of it to Mr. Peter Bulkley, " or any other man 
by that party obtained that now endeavors for Mr. Bulkley." 
Early in 1668, the minority engaged Mr. Zachariah Walker, 



'21 

and the two parties appear to have been recognized upon an 
equality before the law, although the use of the meeting-house 
Avas at first denied them. In 1GG9 the joint use of the build- 
ing was approved by the court. But till the spring of 1G72 
the Second Church of Stratford maintained its existence, at 
which time " fifteen of Mr. Walker's congregation started with 
their families for the wilderness of Pomperaug " and formed 
thus the First Church of Woodbury. No doubt questions 
other than that of the Half-way Covenant influenced this 
action, but diflt'erences of religious opinion surely were prom- 
inent from the beginning. 

The following vote of the church, June 4, 1680, would seem 
to indicate that the church had not before agreed to the prac- 
tices of the Half-way Covenant. The record is as follows : 
" At a church meeting the whole consented that baptism be 
extended to the infants of those qualified according to the 5th 
prop, of Synod G2." 

It seems not to have been easy to settle upon a successor 
to Mr. Chauncey. Several candidates were voted upon, but 
for over six years the church did not agree to settle any one 

as pastor. 

During this time, from May, 1703, to March 27, 1707, Mr. 
John Reed, of Hartford, was hired by the town, although the 
relations thus maintained seem not to have been satisfactory 
either to Mr. Reed or to the church. 

In June, 1709, seven prominent men were appointed a com- 
mittee to " seek for a stranger," and September IGth, of the 
same year, action was taken "for the continuance of Mr. Tim- 
othy Cutler amongst us ; one hundred and three in favor and 
none against." The vote for settlement included the build- 
ing of a house " every way well-finished," a home-lot of over 
two acres, and one hundred acres of land in the six mile divi- 
sion, as well as a salary of £93. OGs. 8d. All salaries previous 
to this time appear to have been paid in "products at fixed 

prices." 

Rev. Timothy Cutler Avas born in Charlestown, Mass., June 
1, 1G84, and was graduated from Harvard in 1701. He was 
ordained the third pastor of this church soon after his settle- 



22 



ment in September, 1709. He was held in liigh esteem by all, 
and bore the reputation of " profound and general learning " 
as well as being " the most celebrated preacher in the Colony." 
After a pastorate of ten years he was elected to the presidency 
of Yale College, and the town with reference thereto " did 
unanimously signify their grief and sorrow respecting Mr. 
Cutlers remove from us who under God hath been the happy 
instrument of uniting us in love and peace after many years 
of contention." After "passively" submitting to Divine Prov- 
idence, they were careful to " provide that the Rev. trustees 
or General Court allow to the town of Stratford one hundred 
pounds money for and towards the charge of settling another 
minister among us." Mr. Cutler's home-lot was that now 
occupied by the " Sterling Homestead," and was the first min- 
ister's lot which did not remain the property of his heirs. 

After three years' service at Yale, Mr. Cutler announced his 
preference for the Episcopal church, and in 1723 went to 
England, where he received the degree of Doctor of Divinitj'' 
from Oxford University. He died in Boston, at the age of 
eighty-two years, in which city he had been Rector of Christ's 
church. 

For three years following Mr. Cutler's dismission. Rev. 
Samuel Russell supplied the pulpit, but a growing party op- 
posed his settlement. An appeal to an Ecclesiastical Council 
and to the General Court failed to bring relief to the troubled 
church, but after Mr. Russell left, a day of fasting and prayer 
was held, and in the spring of 1722, they were able to agree 
upon Mr. Hezekiah Gold, after having " sat under his min- 
istry with gi-eat satisfaction and delight. " The letter of ac- 
ceptance discloses something of the character of the man. 

" To ye old Society and Church of Christ in Stratford, to 
whom grace and peace be multiplied from God our Father 
and from our Lord Jesus Christ. Dearly beloved, these may 
inform you of my grateful and thankful acceptance of your 
generous and honorable proposals for my incouragement in 
ye great work of ye ministry amongst you, in which I propose 
to continue as God in his providence shall permit. 

Your faithful servant in Christ, during life, 

Hez. Gold." 



28 



His ordination was upon the first Wednesday in June, 1722, 
and his pastorate continued thirty years with great profit to 
the church and with large accessions to her membership. 

The Ecclesiastical Societ}', as distinct from the town, in 
transactions relative to Mr. Gold's settlement, is made plain 
for the first time on the records. The General Court, in 1717, 
having passed an act defining the jurisdiction of such societies. 

Wide-spread religious interest was awakened throughout 
New England under the leadership of President Edwards 
about the year 1735, and Mr. Gold entered heartily into the 
work, taking a prominent i^art in the "Great Awakening.'' 
During the first year of his ministry sixty were added to the 
church membership, and between 1781 and 1746 there were 
two hundred and sixty accessions. Rev. George Whitefield 
was welcomed by Mr. Gold to his home and pulpit, and the two 
men were in cordial sympathy, both in doctrine and methods 
of work. It is probable that the sermon preached by Mr. 
Whitefield on Monday afternoon, October 27, 1740, from the 
text: "Turn ye to the stronghold, ye prisoners of hope,"' was 
delivered in the open air, for there is a tradition that a Mrs. 
Burrit, living nearly a mile from Meeting-House Hill, and be- 
ing at that time in her own yard, heard Mr. Whitefield name his 
text. Rev. Mr. Swan in his notes, writes : " This sermon was 
heard by Mrs. Ann Brooks, who narrated the matter to Miss 
Polly Tomlinson, who related it to me in 1859, and she was 
so much interested that with her infant in her arms, she went 
to Fairfield to hear him again the same day." In the follow- 
ing January, Mrs. Brooks united with the church. 

These were days of intense feeling and of strong doctrinal 
preaching, resulting in much discussion, and in the formation 
of parties, not only in Stratford, but throughout New England. 
Calvanistic doctrines were re-asserted. A strong opposition 
Avas developed to the union of Church and State, as well as to 
all "New Light Proceedings."' It is not strange that difficul- 
ties should arise in the path of a pastor in such a time. The 
opposition found helping influences in the presence of Rev. 
Richardson Miner, who won a large following, and in other 
events, which culminated in Mr. Gold's dismission, July 8, 
1752. 



24 

Before the death of Rev. Adam Bhxkeman, there were those 
Avho remembered the forms of church government in the 
Church of England, of which they had been members, and 
daring the passing j-ears famihes came direct from England 
with the opinions and prejudices of early training. It is not 
strange, therefore, that upon the dift'erences arising in the set- 
tlement of a successor to Mr. Blakeman, the Rev. George 
Muirson, missionary for the " Society for the Propagation of 
the Gospel in foreign parts," should find here congenial soil 
for planting the seeds whence grew the first Ej^iscopal church 
organization in Connecticut. This was in 1706. After Mr. 
Cutler left, there w^ere similar disturbing influences and Dr. 
Samuel Johnson, wdth marked ability and success, cared for 
the interests of Episcopacy in Stratford. In the spring of 
1714 the churchmen began the work of building a church edi- 
fice; but it was not until Christmas Day, 1724, that the build- 
ing was opened for worship. It was situated Avithin the 
present Episcopal church-yard. 

It is fitting that here some reference should be made to 
published statements concerning the attitude at this time of 
Congregational j)eople in the matter of religious tolerance. 
We do not claim perfection, or that our fathers, having built 
here for conscience sake, were not strenuous for their privi- 
leges; but we are willing to abide by the records. In 1665 
the General Court sent Avord to Charles II., "We know not 
of any one that hath been troubled by us for attending his 
conscience, provided he hath not disturbed the public." In 
1669 a formal act of religious toleration was put on record. 
In 1727, the tax for the support of public worship, was by law 
paid to the minister of the Church of England, by those mem- 
bers living near said church and attending the same ; while 
upon our town records there are receipts of the first Episco- 
pal minister for his share of such annual tax. There is one 
entry as early as 1730. Any charge that the prisons were full 
of persecuted Episcopalions is ridiculous and utterly without 
foundation from any records, except such as may be gathered 
from the history of Samuel Peters, who married his wife here, 
and seems to have a special grudge against America in general, 



^5 

jind Stratford in particular. Mr. Douglas in his "Summary'' 
of 17-49-53, says: "I never heard of any persecuting spirit in 
Connecticut, in this they are egregiously aspersed." While 
Bancroft quotes Governor John Haynes, as saying to Koger 
Williams : " The most wise God hath provided this part of the 
world, as a refuge and receptacle for all sorts of consciences." 

I may here also correct the popular impression that this 
was ever a Presbyterian church. "An assembly of the minis- 
ters of this Colony," at Saybrook in 16GG, originated the sys- 
tem of Consociations, which partakes somewhat of the Pres- 
byterian form of church government — indeed, by the irrev- 
erant, has been sometimes named "Presbygationalism," — but 
the churches remained Congregational, and the consociational 
system has fallen largely into disuse. This church has always 
been Congregational in its government, declaring both its 
autonomy and its fellowship with the churches of like faith 
and order. 

The Rev. Izrahiah Wetmore, the son of Rev. Izrahiah W^et- 
more, of Stratford," succeeded Mr. Gold, May 16, 1753. His 
pastorate of twenty-seven years was closed by his resignation 
in 1780, but from 1785 to his death in 1798, he Avas settled 
over the church in Trumbull. He preached the election sermon 
before the legislature in 1773. This pulpit, during the Revo- 
lution, gave no uncertain sound. Mr. Wetmore preached 
earnestly and boldly for the independence of the Colonies. 
News of the surrender of Lord Cornwallis to General Wash- 
ington reached Stratford during the Sabbath service, and was 
carried immediately to Parson Wetmore, in the pulpit, as he 
was delivering his discourse. Straightening himself to his 
full height and making known the intelligence, he said: "It 
is no place for boisterous demonstrations in the house of God, 
but we may, in giving three cheers, only go through the mo- 
tions'."' 

The inkstand and punch-bowl of this minister of one hund- 
red years ago, are still preserved by his descendants. 

The relation of the church to the war of '7G may be told in 
a word, "That everybody went." 

The Church Records are explicit in stating that after April 



26 

2, 1780, "the church was vacant four years, four months and 
two days," but tell us nothing of what transpired during that 
time, the next item being the minutes of the Council, which 
convened at the house of Kobert Walker, August 3, 1784, for 
the purpose of ordaining Mr. Stephen William Stebbins, which 
included "reverend elders and messengers"' from New Haven, 
North Stratford, New Stratford, Ripton, in all twelve churches, 
as also the former pastor, Mr. Wetmore, showing that the 
strict rules of the Consociation were not then observed, as 
more than half of the churches were outside of Fairfield East, 
and the moderator. Rev. Chauncey Whittlesey, of New Haven, 
was not the moderator of the Consociation. It was simplj- a 
Congregational council. 

This was in accord with "articles agreed on and assented 
to" July 7th, just previous to the ordination. Our manual 
states that it was a declaration of independencj', which seems 
hardly justified by the record, which reads, " AVe are of opinion 
that ecclesiastical councils have no judicial, decisive authority 
over churches, but yet that it may be of great use in difficult 
cases and in weighty and important affairs to call in neighbor- 
ing churches for their advice." The record continues at 
length to favor the ordaining of pastors by council, and in all 
matters of church discipline to seek the "consent and concur- 
rence of the brethren,"' while expressing "chai-ity towards 
other churches," and willingness that "our ministers should 
be joined and connected with the association and consociation."" 

This is not Independency, it is only a protest against the 
Presbyterian tendency of consociation. It reads to me like 
good Congregationalism, and it helps to the understanding of 
this declaration to know that Fairfield East had made just this 
claim of "power authoritatively and decisively to determine 
ecclesiastical affairs."' It was a wholesome protest. 

Our manual also states that the church re-affirmed the Half- 
way Covenant; which seems hardly just to the records. It 
will be remembered that this is only thirty years after the dif- 
ficulties of Mr. Gold"s time and the " new light proceedings,"" 
which culminated in the division of not a few churches upon 
the terms of the admission of members, and these "articles," 



therefore, appear like an effort to harmonize these elements; 
the fact being that the church did agree upon them. The 
only resemblance to the principals of the Half-way Covenant 
was the recognition of infant baptism as bringing such per- 
sons to the "next and immediate duty of solemnly" owning 
such baptism. But note, the articles say: "It is our opinion 
that none should be admitted hereto, (i. e , the Lord's Sup- 
2)er,) but such as are free from open scandal, appear to be 
serious, own the Christian doctrines and to the judgment of 
charity are resolved by divine grace to maintain a conversa- 
tion becoming the gospel." It is further declared to be "the 
opinion of this church that as there is but one covenant, the 
ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper are equall}' 
sacred;'' and that "special pains should be taken to remove 
the doubts" of any, "and invite and urge them to their duty.'" 

It would certainly be hard to find much fault with this or to 
show any difference from our j^'i'^sent practices, except that 
we have so much neglected the sacred covenant with Almighty 
God into which parents enter when they bring their children 
to Him in the ordinance of baptism. 

The records contain the names of one hundred and three 
persons who were "admitted to special ordinances in the 
church" during the twenty-nine years of Mr. Stebbins' pas- 
torate. He Avas dismissed in August, 1813. To him belongs 
the credit of stopping the vandalism which cut away so much 
from Academy Hill and spoiled its symetry. 

His pastorate covered the times of special religious declen- 
sion throughout New England In many churches there was 
not a member who could offer public prayer. War had demor- 
alized the people. French infidelity was rife. Unitarianism 
and Universalism gained new footholds. The churches of the 
Pilgrims were in their captivity. But it was the darkness 
which preceeds the dawn. God was waiting to be gracious 
to his people. 

From the beginning of the history to the end of this pas- 
torate in 1813, the average length of these six pastorates is 
twenty-six and one-half years. From this time onward the 
terms of service are to be marked for brevitv, that of Mr. 'Weed 



28 

beiug fifteen and one-half years, and no other reaching beyond 
seven years duration. 

There is a tradition that Eev. Jesse Lee preached here July 
3, 1789, and it is on record that the first Methodist class Avas 
formed May 19, 1790, which in the following year numbered 
twenty members. Services were held in private houses till 
1810, when the first house of worship was built. The present 
building was erected during the pastorate of Rev. Abram S. 
Francis in 1839 and 1840. 

These gatherings of Methodist people in private houses, for 
prayer and praise, not only on the Lord's day, but on week- 
day evenings as well, were the beginnings of similar gather- 
ings among the Congregationalists, Avho before this time were 
unacquainted with what we now call the Prayer-Meeting. 
There were "Circular Fasts," held for twelve or fifteen years 
after the preaching of "Whitefield in 1740, but aside from "The 
Sacramental Lectures," previous to the communion, whose 
origin is uncertain, as Prof. Phelps says, " In the olden times 
the two sermons on the Lord's day, with the accompanying 
exercises, constituted the whole of the services of public wor- 
ship." It was not without decided opposition that these 
prayer-meetings were begun, held first in private houses, then 
in the shop on Main street, attached to the McEwen house; 
then in Koswell Curtis' shoj) : then in the Academy, until it 
found a resting j^lace in the lecture-room which was built dur- 
ing the pastorate of Mr. Weed in 1845. 

Rev. Matthew R. Dutton, September 20, 1814, was ordained 
the seventh pastor, and for seven years worked successfully 
for the building of waste places, till in 1821, he accepted the 
Professorship of Natural Philosophy in Yale College, where 
he died July 17, 1825. 

At this ordination the ordaining prayer was offered by Rev. 
Nathan Birdseye, a descendant of John Birdseye, the first 
deacon of this chuich, who was at this time one hundred years 
old, and had twelve children, seventy-six grandchildren, one 
hundred and sixty-three great-grandchildren, and seven great- 
great-grandchildren — in all two hundred and fifty-eight, of 
whom two hundred and six were livino- at the time of his 



29 



death in 1818, at the jige of one hundred and three years, five 
months, and nine da3's. Mr. Birdseye's descendants in Strat- 
ford, to-day, would comprise a Large portion of the village. 

So great was the laxity both of faith and practice during 
the early years of this century, that Mr. Stebbins had refused 
to administer the communion. After his dismission, at a meet- 
ing of the church, June 26, 1814, it M-as voted " that each 
member of this church shall inanifest his or her assent to the 
Confession of Faith, adojited by this church, by rising up," 
and it was further voted, July 24, 1814, that those who thus 
"assented" shall "constitute the church in this society in 
Stratford." On the 5th of August, following, Mr. Dutton was 
called to the pastorate, and there appear to have been eighty 
members who thus "constituted" the church at this time. 
During the following year, forty-two were added, on the first 
Sabbath in July, 1821, seventy, and during the seven years 
from 1814 to 1825, one hundred and fifty-three. 

The records tell us nothing of what happened during the 
three years following the autumn of 1821, but January 10, 
1825, there was "free and cordial unanimity" in calling to the 
pastorate Rev. Joshua Leavitt, who. though leaving the church 
after three j'ears to accept the office of Secretary of the Amer- 
ican Seaman's Friend Society, was a most active and aggres- 
sive man in affairs both of Church and State, and exerted a 
strong influence in the town especially upon the questions of 
temperance, the emancipation of the slaves, and the conduct 
of the schools. 

February 27, 1828, sixty delegates representing thirty-six 
churches, met here in general conference. There were ad- 
dresses to the church, heads of families, the aged, the impen- 
itent, and the youth. In Mr. Leavitt's own words, "The 
whole exercises were very solemn, and a crowded house was 
deeply impressed by the scene. May the savor of that day 
long remain in Stratford." 

If all of the clerks and pastors had kept the records as Mr. 
Leavitt did there would be no lack of data for the use of the 
future historian. After transcribing the full details of his dis- 
mission, he puts on record the following: "And now that my 



30 



pastoral connection witli this people is thus formally dissolved, 
I give up my charge into the hands of Him from whom I re- 
ceived, with the humble prayer that grace, mercy and peace, 
from God our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, may be 
multiplied unto them forevermore. May God reward them 
a thousand fold for all their kindness to me and mine, and in 
His own good time and way send them a more faithful and 
successful minister." The spirit of a faithful pastor breathes 
through every word of this benediction. 

Dr. Leavitt, in 182G, organized the Sunday-School and was 
its superintendent during the remainder of his pastorate, with 
the assistance of Miss Mariah McEwen, who, upon Mr. Leavitt's 
resignation, took full charge of the school for several years, 
till the election of Eli Booth, who was followed in succession 
by Deacon David P. Judson, Henry Plant, "William Strong, 
Henry Plant, a second term, Frederick Sedgewick, Deacon 
Samuel T. Houghton, Deacon Samuel E. Curtis, Rev. Joel S. 
Ives, Principal Wilfred M. Peck, and the present incumbent, 
Horace H. Judson. 

June 18, 1826, after a reference of the matter to a com- 
mittee appointed in the preceding May. a standing committee, 
or " Helps,'" were elected, consisting of Deacon Agur Curtis, 
Deacon Philo Curtis, and Deacon Agur Curtis, 3d. 

Rev. Thomas Robbins was installed pastor in 1830, but was 
dismissed in September of the following year. Rev. Samuel 
Griswold seems to have supplied the pulpit for a time, as 
thirty-two were received by him to this church in December. 
1831, and January, 1832. 

The tenth pastor was Rev. Frederick W. Chapman, who 
was ordained September 5, 1832, and remained six and a half 
years. These were times of widespread revival interest, and 
names were added to the church roll who have been a tower 
of strength ; exerting an influence of blessing upon the com- 
munity, especially in Putney and Oronoque. Prayer-meet- 
ings Avere begun in Oronoque, during the pastorate of Dr. 
Dutton, and there have been prayer-meetings at the Putney 
chapel since 18G7. The chapel in Putney was built in 1844. 



31 



These religious influences have been a large factor in making 
those communities thrifty and wholesome. 

The last half century of our history began \yith a pastorate 
cherished in the memory of all whose recollections reach back 
thirty-five years or more, and fruitful in all good things to 
this church and community. December 4, 1839, Rev. William 
Bouton Weed was ordained pastor and ministered to this jieo- 
ple fifteen and one-half years, till his dismission in May, 1855, 
to accept the pastorate of the First church in Norwalk, where, 
"having served his generation by the will of God, he fell on 
sleep," December 13, 18G0. 

I can do no better than to quote a paragraph from the 
tribute of Dr. Robert R. Booth, who said at Mr. Weed's 
funeral: "It was at Stratford that his ministeral character 
was formed, his i^eculiar reputation was acquired, and his 
great work was done. He went there a young man, with a 
mind richly stored with learning, and a heart all aglow with 
Christian fervor. He burst like a new planet upon this quiet 
village, where preaching had before been exhibited more as a 
sober, sacred duty, than as a divine and thrilling art. From 
the very beginning of his service there, he revealed himself as 
a remarkable man and his fame went abroad into the adjacent 
country. A glorious revival of religion followed soon, coming 
like the warm breath of spring to unlock the ice-bound earth 
and fill all hearts with gladness. Many precious souls were 
then gathered into the church. His whole course was signal- 
ized by the most laborious study, by ardent and devoted 
labors, and by a remarkable earnestness of action, truthful- 
ness and plainness of speech, and an intense force of life which 
made him the central influence of the town. His sermons 
were always driven home. His views of truth and duty be- 
came the standards of opinion. Men of all conditions and of 
all varieties of views were attracted to his pulpit, and, not- 
withstanding the eccentricities of his character, he has left an 
impression for good upon that community which will not pass 
away while the generation that knew him continues on the 
stage of action."' 

Rev. Joseph R. Page was installed February 11, 1857, and 



32 



was dismissed Septembei* 26, 1858; the "only reason for 
making the request" for dismission, in Mr. Page's own words, 
"is the want of adaptation to each other of the parties." The 
records seem to show good work and fifty names were added 
to the church roll during this brief pastorate. 

After a unanimous call. Rev. Benjamin L. Swan entered 
upon his duties as pastor, November 1, 1858, and was dis- 
missed after about four years and one-half of service, during 
which time the present house of worship was completed and 
the general work of the church seems to have been thoroughly 
attended to. Mr. Swan's records are models both in matter 
and penmanship, and his interest in the history of the church 
and town wrought results of incalculable value. It seems 
most unfortunate that this pastorate could not have been 
greatly extended. And to our brother whose life we trust 
may long be spared and whose presence at this anniversary 
Avas much desired, we extend our heartiest greetings with our 
aj^preciation of the labors of love here performed. 

"With characteristic exactness there is recorded the facts of 
having preached in this pulpit one hundred and ninety-five 
Sabbaths, and six hundred and ninety- six sermons and lec- 
tures; of thirty-seven admitted to the church, and of nine 
hundred and eighty-three "calls on families," which numbered 
one hundred and sixty in 1859, and one hundred and seventy- 
seven in 1862. 

The following resolution was adopted by the church: "In 
accepting the resignation of our pastor, Rev. B. L. Swan, we 
take occasion to express to him our high appreciation of his 
gifts and learning and our unhesitating confidence in his piety 
and soundness in the faith, and that we aifectionately assure 
him of our sincere wishes and our prayers for his usefulness 
and happiness in whatever sphere God in His providence may 
hereafter place him." 

May 25, 1864, Rev. Louis E. Charpiot was installed pastor, 
the sermon being preached by Dr. Noah Porter, and during 
the two years that he ministered twenty-five were added to 
the church. 

William K. Hall, D.D., after theological studies in New 



33 



Haven and in Germany and ordination as chaplain of the Con- 
necticut vohinteers, was installed pastor of this church Octo- 
ber 24, 1866, and was dismissed May 21, 1872 ; a letter of res- 
ignation having been sent to the church March 31st, which 
stated, to quote Dr. Hall's words, "the discouragements under 
which I was pursuing my work among them, from a want of 
their cooperation in that work." 

In July, 1867, " It was voted that the public services of the 
afternoon be omitted and that public worship be held in the 
evening." For nineteen years the plan of holding the second 
service in the evening during several months in the summer 
and in the afternoon during the rest of the year was continued, 
with something of friction whenever the votes were taken, till 
November 14, 1886, when it was voted to hold the second ser- 
vice in the evening during the entire year. 

In 1869 a manual was issued which shows a membership of 
two hundred and sixty-six ; during the year previous forty- 
three were added to the church. The church is greatly to be 
commended for issuing so much of historical matter which 
had been gathered l)y the research of Kev. Mr. Swan. A 
second manual was issued in 1881, in which were added pic- 
tures of the present edifice and of the edifice preceding this, 
and, also, a list of members from the beginning, gathered with 
great patience and labor by Mr. C. H. Warner. The member- 
ship of the church was then two hundred and seventy. 

]J)r. Hall accepted a call from the First Presbyterian church 
in Newburgh, N. Y., in January, 1873, and is still ministering 
to that people with increasing usefulness, 

April 6, 1873, a call was extended to Mr. Frank S. Fitch, 
who was about to graduate at Yale Theological Seminary. 
June 17th, he was ordained pastor, and ministered with great 
acceptance and marked success till Sejitember 29, 1878, when 
he resigned to accept a call from the Seventh Street Congre- 
gational church in Cincinnati. These were years of revival, 
and one hundred and twenty-six were added to the church, 
making at the present time about one-quarter of the member- 
ship. " He that winneth souls is wise." It has always seemed 
to me extremely unfortunate that after receiving this lai'ge 
3 



Si 



company of youn^' people to the cliureli Mr. Fitch coukl not 
}iave remained to train them iii Christian work and estabUsh 
them in the faith. 

Samuel Howard Dana, D.D., was called to this pastorate 
December 22, 1878, and was installed March 12, 1879. At his 
own request he was dismissed December 6, 1881. The fol- 
lowing is from the "Result of Council"': 

"In reluctantl}^ consenting to sanction the removal of Mr. 
Dana from the fellowship with the churches of this body to 
which he was cordially w^elcomed nearly three years snice, and 
in which he has been increasingly appreciated, we tender him 
our heartiest Avishes for his future welfare and usefulness, 
and we commend him to the churches in the midst of which 
his lot may be cast hereafter, as an active, earnest and dili- 
gent minister of Christ, of Catholic spirit, of fine culture and 
scholarly aspiration ; of unblemished character and in good 
repute as a preacher and pastor ; and as a man whose patience 
and dignity in peculiar trials have l)een recognized with admi- 
ration both by the people of his immediate charge and by the 
Christian public surrounding them." 

For the past six j^ears Dr. Dana has been the successful 
pastor of the Union Congregational church of Quincy, Illinois. 
We are sorry not to have him with us in these festivities. 

During the six months, beginning with Feln-uary, 1882, Dr. 
Edwin Johnson supplied the church, and during the summer 
Rev. F. S. Fitch, to whom a unanimous and hearty vote was 
extended to assume again the pastorate. In declining Mr. 
Fitch wrote, " My heart has said 'yes ' all along, but my judg- 
ment has constrained me to say ' no.' " 

Early in 1883, H. M. Ladd, D.D., supplied for several weeks 
and a call was extended to him, which he declined. As the 
year wore on many candidates were heard, till September 23, 
1883, a call was extended to your present pastor, Avhose term 
of service is, by a few months, longer than any since that of 
Mr. Weed. Meanwhile the membership of the church had 
been growing less, from two hundred and seventy to two 
hundred and fifty, but since 1884, eighty have been added, 
making the number about the same as during Mr. Hall's and 



35 



Mr. Fitch's ministry. Oh that the Lord might visit his her- 
itage in blessing and fit pastor and people for a large ingather- 
ing of precious souls ! 

October 26. 1885, a Young People's Society of Christian En- 
deavor was organized and has been a most hopeful and help- 
ful means of bringing the young people into the Christian life 
and of training them for Christian service. For more than a 
year a Junior Society has been found useful in fitting the 
little ones for work, and in encouraging them in looking for- 
ward to helpful participation in the activities of the church. 

Philip Groves' name appears among the earliest lists of the 
Colony. He was the only Ruling Elder of the church ; in 
1654 he was chosen ''Assistant," and '"was empowered to 
marry persons.'' The following is the list of Deacons: John 
Birdsey, whose son, John, was born in Stratford in 1641 ; 
Timothy Wilcoxson, Thomas Wells, Robert Walker, John 
Thompson, Ephraim Judson, Job Peck, Elnathan Wheeler, 
Isaiah Brown, Ebenezer Coe, Nathan McEwen, Samuel Ufford, 
Agur Curtis, Philo Curtis, Agur Curtis, "3d," David P. Jud- 
son, Agur Treat Curtis, Lewis Beers, Charles C. Wells, Samuel 
T. Houghton, and Samuel E. Curtis. 

The first house of worship was on the shore of the creek at 
Sandy Hollow, where is now the barn belonging to Caj)tain 
William Barrymore. There are no records of its dimensions, 
but if it was like the first meeting-house in New Haven, it was 
square, with a hip-roof, and on the top an out-look against the 
approach of Indians, and, also, some provision for a bell, 
which is said to have been the first church bell in the State. 
The first sexton and bell-ringer was John Peet ; when his 
duties began Ave do not know, but in 1660 John Pickett was 
elected by the town to fill his place. In 1661 " it was agreed 
that there shall be a gallery builded in the meeting-house in 
the convenient place." This house was in use about forty 
years, for in 1681 it was torn down and the materials sold at 
auction; some of the timbers being in the house near by, now 
occupied by Mr. Joseph Savage. 

" Goodman Peake " and '■ Goodman Pickett " not only cared 



36 



for the building and rang the bell for meetings and at '" nine 
of the clock," but were required " to watch over the disorderly- 
persons in the meeting and use his discretion in striking any 
person whom he tinds so disorderly."' 

As the years went on the population of Stratford moved 
"up town." So that in 1678, when the location of the new 
church, which had been resolved upon only two years after 
the Narragansett war, was mooted and five different localities 
were mentioned. Rev. Israel Chauncey agreed to give £40 if 
they would " sett the meeting-house upon the hill," and No- 
vember 25, 1679, it voted to '-move up town." 

The location, which we call Academy Hill, was then "Watch- 
house hill and in early years marked the northern boundary 
of the settlement, as along the northern brow of the hill there 
was a row of palisades, within which was the Watch-house. 
The dimensions of this second meeting-house were "forty-eight 
feet in length, forty-two feet in breadth, and sixteen feet be- 
tween joints," from which I judge that the general appearance 
of the building was the same with the first. The building 
committee were " Captain William Curtis, Sergt. Jerem. Jud- 
son, John Curtis, Sergt. Jehiel Preston, and John Birdseye, 
Jr." The house was built during the summer of 1680, and by 
vote of the town the inhabitants were seated according to 
rules of dignity, one special rule being the amount they paid 
to the new building, which was of course by tax and not volun- 
tary. At this time a day's work Avas credited at two shillings 
and sixpence to three shillings. 

The tax which was voted " to pay charges about the build- 
ing " was £100. In 1689 it was voted to fortify the house so 
that it could be used " as a place of security for women and 
children." 

In 1700 an end gallery was built, and in 1715 two side gal- 
leries, and it was voted in 1718 that the west side gallery " shall 
be seated with married men, the east gallery with married 
women, and antiant bachelors and antiant maidens the second 
seats." In 1715 "farmers were granted liberty to erect suit- 
able shelter for their horses on all jmblic da^'s." The first 
pews were built about 1710. 




INTEKIOK OP OLD CHUI5CII. 



39 



During- the pastorate of Mr. Gold, on the " second Monday, 
Februar}^ 1743, voted that it is necessary to build a meeting- 
house." This is the action of the ecclesiastical society, not 
the town. There was also a difference of opinion in regard 
to location, for " Captain Theoplius Nichols, Mr. Robert Wal- 
ker, Jr., and Sergeant Daniel Porter," were empowered to 
make application to the General Assembly for '• a committee 
to fix a place where the said society shall erect their meeting- 
house." The dimensions were to be sixty feet in length, forty 
in width, the posts twenty-six feet, and a steeple one hundred 
and thirty feet high. This third meeting-house was located 
near the sight of the old academy, a few rods west of the pre- 
ceding house, facing south, where was the door of entrance, 
and some marks of the bridle-path leading to it now remain. 
It was destroyed by lightning June 11, 1785, the fire bursting 
out first from the steeple. This was during the pastorate of 
Mr. Stebbins. 

The society seem not at all to have been disheartened hj 
their loss, for the frame of the new house was begun to be 
raised on Friday, May 17, 1786, upon this location where we 
now are, which was then called HielFs hill, and also Smith 
shop hill, and in just twenty-five weeks it was completed, the 
services of dedication being on Sunday, November 12th, when 
Mr. Stebbins preached in the morning from Psalms 107 : 7, 
after which was the communion, and at three in the afternoon 
there was a union service, at which time Mr. Stebbins again 
preached. 

The dimensions of this fourth building were the same as 
the third, and the general appearance is familiar from the cut 
in our manual. It was an imposing structure for the times. 
The view of the interior has been preserved through the 
thoughtfuluess of Mr. R. W. Bunnell, who stepped into the 
building November 1, 1858, as it was being torn down to make 
way for the present edifice, and sketched the pulpit, sounding- 
board and surroundings so perfectly that the room has been 
finely reproduced. Mr. Swan records that six hundred and 
twenty-four were received to the church membership in that 
building-. 



40 



Mr. William A. Bootli, of New York, then living here, built 
the beautiful parsonage, which each pastor since Mr. Swan 
has greatly enjoyed, and for several years rented it to the 
society for a nominal sum. It was afterwards purchased of 
him. He Avas largely instrumental in the erection of the 
present meeting-house, which was dedicated October 27, 1859, 
with the scrij^ture reading by Dr. Brace, of Milford ; the prayer 
by Dr. Hewitt, of Bridgeport, and the sermon by Di'. R. S. 
Storrs, of Brooklyn. Its architecture is peculiarly ecclesias- 
tical and beautifvxl. Last year it was greatly improved by the 
introduction of steam heating apparatus, as well as thoroughly 
repaired. 

The town meeting has frequently been referred to as the 
corner-stone of our civil freedom. Too much honor cannot 
be given to Connecticut as the mother of our democracy and 
the author of our widespread doctrine of civil government as 
well as the source of the compromise out of which grew our 
present National Constitution, in which Stratford had her 
honored part ; but beyond this I agree with Senator Piatt in 
the declaration, that " The Congregational church was a re- 
ligious democracy, and our civil independence and political 
self-government are its necessary out-growth. The day of the 
meeting-house was a day of moral earnestness." 

The metrical version of the Psalms, by Sternhold and Hop- 
kins, was printed with the Bibles of the latter part of the IGth 
century, and was probalily used by the founders of this church. 
The Bay Psalm Book was published in 1640, and after a few 
years was in general use in New England. It is interesting 
to remember that at the organization of this church the King 
James verson of the Bible was not in universal use. The Gene- 
van Bible was used for man}' years at New Haven, and not 
unlikely in this church, also, with the same strong opposition 
to "any change in the Word of God," which we find to- 
day with reference to the Revised Version. Dr. Watt's Scrij^- 
tural selection was in use after the Bay Psalm Book and, also, 
Tate and Brady, which was also published in 1765 with an 
appendix from Dr. Watts. A hundred years after this we find 



41 

the Church Psabuody, and in 1857 there was in use here the 
" Psahns and Hymns," issued by the State Association. In 
February, 1878, a committee was appointed who selected the 
" Songs for the Sanctuary," Avhich has been in use since then. 
In early years one or more choristers were elected who set 
the tune with a pitch-pipe ; after that the base viol and other 
stringed instruments led the service of song, with the addition 
of a choir completing the four parts. Fugue tunes came into 
use in the latter part of the 18th century. The next advance 
was a melodeon with two banks of keys, and in 1SG8 our pres- 
ent organ was purchased. 

" All nations prayse the Lord ; him prayse 
all people. For his mercies bee 
great toward us ; also always 
the Lord's truth lasts, the Lord praj'se yee." 

[From Bay Psalm Book, KUO.] 

In this brief time, which can be taken from the crowded ex- 
ercises of this anniversary, I have given a few meagre outline 
touches along the two hundred and fifty years of our history. 
The simple facts would be of little interest were it not that a 
•'master thought" imder lies them all. It is, What God has 
v'7'ought throiifjh His j^eople for His kingdom. The work- 
jnen — more than two thousand of them, members of this 
church — have died, but the work dies not. The star of hope 
never shined more brightly. The hastening glory of the com- 
ing kingdom is beyond the dawning, it climbs toward the 
zenith of its consummation. We have been considering the 
history of our church, but we are a part of a great whole. 
There is a wider sweep of historic forces — there is the univer; 
sal church of God. And although our Congregational 
churches do not yet number their membership in the millions, 
we do take pride in the contributions which we have made to 
the past and in that which we are williang to make to the 
more glorious future. Our freedom of worship, our liberty 
of thought, our protest against any hierarchy, our equality 
before God — " the common priesthood of believers " — our zeal 
for the Kingdom of Righteousness and Truth, — these are the 
truths which our fathers gave us, and these are the things 



42 



which we would bear onward to the church of Christ univer- 
s il. " For yet a very little while He that cometh shall come," 
and in that triumphal g'lory we shall have our share, while to 
Him that sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb shall be 
tlie everlasting praise. 



COMMUNION. 

Eev. W. K. Hall, D.D. 

St. P.^ul said. That which I have received give I unto you. 
On the same night in which our Lord was betrayed he took 
bread and blessed it. In imitation of our Lord's example let 
us look now for the Divine blessing upon this bread. 

Almighty Father, it is with a holy joy and devout thanksgiv- 
ing that we gather around the table of our Lord to-day. We 
are thankful for the past. We are thankful for the fathers' 
faith, and the fathers' love, and the fathers' service, thankful 
to Thee for their consecration to Christ and to His service. 
We are conscious to-day of receiving not simply a heritage of 
circumstances, a heritage of knowledge, a heritage of truth 
from them, but a heritage of life, a life that was fed upon the 
Christ upon whom we feed to-day. We are thankful, our 
Heavenly Father, that we are possessors of this life, that has 
been communicated to us down through the centuries, and we 
rejoice to-day in the same truth in Avhich our fathers rejoiced : 
and to-day we are having the same comforts and the same 
source of peace and strength, and the same inspiration for 
high purpose and earnest Avork, here at the table of our Lord. 
Amid all the changes of the changing years we gather around 
this table conscious that the significance of the symbol that 
is now before us has remained unchanged ; that He is the same 
yesterday, to-day, and forever : that the cross that was once 
up-lifted, and the Christ, who once gave Himself to redeem the 
world, are the same, and so upon the same food we eat to-day 
as our fathers did. And grant, and grant now, we pray Thee, 



Note. — The following officiated at the Communion : Deacons R. B. Lacey, J. H. Linds- 
ley, W. WeUs Lewis, E. W. Woodruff, A. L. Wiuton, A. T. Curti.s, and 0. C. Wells. 



43 



that the blessings with which Thou didst bless them, the 
blessings of spiritual strength, the blessings of hope, of life, 
of comfort, of peace, of joy, may be ours to-day. And we 
would, our Father, not simply look back upon the past or cast 
our eye down the future ; and while we are thankful for the 
past, which has been bequeathed to us, with all its rich leg- 
acies and ever-constant power for good, thankful to Thee for 
the presence in which we stand, we pray for blessings upon 
the children and the children's children that may come after 
us; that the light here may continue to shine, giving forth 
no uncertain light, and that this table, with its blessed sig- 
nificance, ma}^ continue to give nourishment and strength to 
those, who shall come after. May there be loyalty, truth and 
allegiance to Christ and love for Him. And may we hear the 
voices from this high day of festivity and joy, with renewed 
purpose to serve Thee, with renewed consecration prompted 
by Thy love shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost ; 
and, denying all ungodliness and worldly lusts, may we live 
righteous and godly in this present world, looking unto the 
blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and our 
Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, that he might 
redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar 
people, zealous of good works. And to the name of the 
Father, Son and Holy Ghost, be praise forever. Amen. 

And when our Lord had blessed the bread he gave it unto 
his disciples, saying. This is my body broken for you. Take, 
eat. This do in remembrance of me. 

Eev. F. S. Fitch. — He also took the cup and gave thanks. 

We thank Thee, our dear Father in Heaven, for Thy love 
wherewith Thou has loved us, and for all these efforts which 
Thou hast been making for our salvation. "We thank Thee 
especially for the gift of Thy dear Son, our Lord and Saviour 
Jesus Christ, through whom we have remission of sins and 
newness of life and access to Thee. We beseech Thee that 
Thou wilt fill our hearts with gratitude to the Holy Spirit for 
this gift of our Lord ; and as we receive this fruit of the vine, 
may we understand Th}' measure of infinite love ; for greater 



44 



love hath no man than this, that a man hxy do.vn his life for 
his friend. May we be able to discern his wounded body, his 
broken life, his agony, his death : Who, though he was no 
sinner, stood in our place and suffered as our surety. Help 
us also, our Heavenly Father, to have a due sense of our own 
unwortniness. May we realize that, if our disease was so fatal 
that no other remedy would avail, that sin must be a great 
terror to our souls. May we understand that, without the 
remission of blood through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, 
there is no salvation, and may we therefore gladly acknowl- 
edge our indebtedness to Him who hath made this costly sac- 
rifice for us. Wilt Thou set apart for holy uses so much of 
this fruit of the vine as we shall drink, that it shall not be a 
type of the world's greatest debauchery and sin, but that it 
shall be a type to us of the vine and the branches, of that im- 
partation of life which strengthens us here and makes immor- 
tality possible. We beseech Thee as we receive this cup that 
we may receive it as a token of Thy grace and to the honor of 
the Lord Jesus. Amen. 



BENEDICTION. 

Rev. Joel 8. Ives. 

And now, the God of peace, who brought again from the 
dead our Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, 
through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you per- 
fect in every good work to do His will, working in you that 
which is well-pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ our 
Lord, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. 

Recess for collation at Town Hall. 



45 




COLLATION TABLES IN TOWN HALL 



THE DIVINE BLESSING WAS INVOKED BY 

Eea'. H. a. Davenpokt. 

Our Father, God: we want Thy blessing at this family table 
of the household of faith. We thank Thee for the brightness 
and fellowship of this day. We thank Thee for Thy favor to 
us in spiritual and temporal matters. We, therefore, earnestly 
crave thy blessing, that Thou wouldst sanctify these comforts 
and these pleasures and this sweet Christian communion. Be 
gracious to us this hour, we pray Thee, and accept our thanks, 
in Jesus Christ. Amen. 



AFTERNOON SERVICE 



PKAYEE, 

Rev. George W. Judson. 

Let us pray. 

Thou hast been our dwelling place, O Lord, in all genera- 
tions. Before the mountains were made, before Thou didst 
form the earth and the world, even from everlasting to ever- 
lasting. Thou art God. And yet we rejoice to know Thee as 
our Heavenly Father, and Ave rejoice to acknowledge Thy 
l^resence in these last festivities, and in these joyful memo- 
ries. Accept then, we pray Thee, the gratitude and the thanks- 
giving of our hearts for all the mercies and blessings which, 
in all the days that have gone by, Thou hast bestowed upon 
this ancient church. We rejoice in the character of Christian 
piety and fervent enthusiasm of those who established this 
church. We rejoice in the work which Avas done by all those 
Avho folloAved in the footsteps of the founders of this church. 
We rejoice for Christian fathers and mothers. We rejoice for 
Christian homes. We rejoice in all the lives of beneficence 
and influence in this place that have been lived, shoAving forth 
not the glory of self, but the glory of Christ. We do thank 
Thee for the children Avhich have gone forth, in the days that 
have gone, from the maternal roof, in the midst of other sur- 
roundings, continuing the good Avork Avhich they Avere per- 
mitted here to begin. And we do beseech Thee that, as child- 
ren and the children's children have gathered to-day in the 
old home. Thy blessing may rest upon us ; and that those, Avho 
shall bring the tributes of their love and their affection, may 
be able to give adequate expression to the gratitude and love 
of their hearts. Noav bless us, we beseech Thee, in the especial 
services of this afternoon. Grant that the Avelcome home may 
make us feel, each and every one of us, at home in our fellow- 



47 



ship with one another, and in our communion with Thee, our 
common Lord. Grant, we beseech Thee, that the word spoken 
unto us by former pastors of this church may come to us bring- 
ing to our minds the remembrance.of services which they were 
permitted here to do for Thee, and may the remembrance of 
these services add impressiveuess and power to the words of 
counsel which they shall bring to us, and as those churches, 
which are here represented, shall bi'ing one by one the tidings 
and the messages of their love and affection, may it be that a 
tide of love for Thee shall fill all our hearts, for Thee, the 
giver of these good gifts, for Thee, the inspirer of all this 
Christian endeavor, and thus may it be that the services of 
this hour shall do us all good, shall stimulate and quicken us 
in our Christian endeavors, shall inspire us in all that we have 
to do in following the Master, that we may be able so worthily 
to serve Thee with all the Israel of God, that not only Thy 
kingdom shall come but Thy will be done in earth as it is done 
in heaven. We ask it in the name of our Lord and Master. 
Amen. 

ADDRESS OF WELCOME, 

By the Pastor. 

The grandmother is keeping house to-day ; and she finds 
herself somewhat in the position of that mother of our nursery 
rhymes, who had so many children that she didn't know what to 
do ! But we are here to give you a most hearty welcome : — you 
who are the children and the grandchildren of this ancient 
church. We are here to bid you most hearty welcome who 
come as friends, and who come in remembrance of the ancestors 
who have lived in this church. We bid you most hearty welcome. 
It is our rejoicing that you are with us to-day. We are glad 
because the years have rolled around till this anniversary has 
been reached, and in this joyous occasion we can thus cele- 
brate our Quarto-Millennium. Yet this upon the progrannne 
M'hich you read, "Address of Welcome by the Pastor,'' Avas 
put on simply to fill up and make the programme look well. 
It wasn't intended that there should be any set address. We 



48 

are rejoicing that two of the former pastors of this church 
are present with us, and it devolves upon them to give the 
greetings to these children and grandchildren who are with 
us to-day. We are glad now to listen to Dr. Hall. 



GREETINGS TO THE CHILDEEN AND GRAND- 
CHILDREN OF THE CHURCH, 

Rev. W. K. Hall, D.D. 

I SUPPOSE it was the intention simply to till out the pro- 
gramme. It is so short ! 

I have been looking at these panels and have been wonder- 
ing, my dear brother, whether it was for to-day you have had 
so many panels put in this church, so that at the time of this 
celebration there would be just so many churches' names to 
fill in. 

Mr. Ives. We are just one child short and had to put up 
that flag. 

Dr. Hall. You haven't heard from all of them. 

It is about a score of years ago, twenty years next May, if 
my memory serves me rightly, this dear old grandmother was 
invited to participate in the birthday exercises of her first- 
born child, the Woodbury church ; and I have been requested 
by your pastor to limit my words to greetings to the Wood- 
bury church and her children. As I read that request, my 
mind w^ent back twenty years ago to the lovely feast we held 
up among the hills and by the beautiful river, with this 
bright, beautiful, fair daughter two hundred years old I was 
then a young man just entering the ministry, and I was called 
upon to represent this old grandmother; and the sentiment 
at that time proposed to which I was called upon to respond 
w^as this, or something like it: "Venerable mother: Thou that 
dwellest by the sea, called in thy green old age to celebrate 
the birthday of thy first daughter, Ave greet thee and we wel- 
come thee to this fair heritage with which the Lord our God 
hath blessed thee." 

That is pretty good for the memory of one who is called 



49 

upon to rei^reseut a church that was then about two hundred 
years old. At that time this daughter, and the children and 
grandchildren that were then with her, in the course of the 
day's festivities, referred to the time which would not be far 
away. It seemed to me then to be very far away, when we 
would assemble beneath the old homestead roof and celetrate 
the Two Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the mother's 
life. The years have gone by, dear friends, and those of you 
who were with us at Woodbury perhaps think it was only yes- 
terday Ave had the lovely pleasant-time together. How heartily 
we entered into the rejoicings of that day ! While this mother 
has had, I think, about five children, this daughter has had 
five, and a granddaughter ; so that she is not simply a grand- 
mother but a great-grandmother : for, if I mistake not, the 
church in South Britain is the grand-child of the church in 
Woodbury. Am I right f 

Mr. Ives. I don't know% sir. 

Dr. Hall. I thought you Avere the historian. 

Mr. Ives. Not of that church. 

Dr. Hall. I think the South Britain church was a grand- 
child of the church of Woodbury. If so, the old church here 
is a great-grandmother instead of a grandmother. We greet 
and welcome you, dear child of Woodbury, and your children 
and your grandchildren to-day. You see your own mother 
hale and hearty as ever. There is no sign of decrepitude or 
decadence about her. It is one sad thing w^hen Ave come to 
visit our parents in declining years to find marks that make 
us sad. We see the deep furroAvs in the face, we see the tot- 
tering step, we see the failing faculties : and it is sometimes 
far more saddening than joyous to see an old parent from 
whom Ave have been separated perhaps many years. But not 
so with the church of the living God. If she is fulfilling her 
mission, doing the work that God has assigned her, she groAVS 
youthful Avith the years ; and, though the years wax and wane, 
she seems to take on Avith increasing years increased vitality. 
And so to-day this old church of Christ presents as fresh a 
life, as buoyant a heart, as sprightly a step, as any of her 
children. And as you druAv nearer to her, and receive her 



50 



warm congratulations and greetings to-day, beneath the old 
roof, by the old fireside, the daughters, and the daughters' 
children, there come the evident tokens of a life prosperous, 
strong and vigorous. You find one who is as true to-day to 
the standards of the faith as when, two hundred and fifty years 
ago, the few gathered together to sign with their own hands the 
solemn covenant. Your mother has never desired one verse 
less in the Bible. She has never abbreviated her creed, nor 
has she shortened the commandments. Faithful to ti-uth: 
and although she maj' have an increase of knowledge above 
that of the fathers, yet still she looks back with reverence and 
Avith devout thanksgiving to the gi'ace of God that hath 
crowned the years, and looks forward with bright, keen eye to 
the future, believing that, as long as yonder river flows to the 
sea, and as long as j^onder waves beat upon the shore, though 
the old town of Stratford, with its historic records and glories, 
may be engulfed within the more modern but i)rosperous, busy 
city of Bridgeport, that is continually grasjiing from her old 
reach and domain; and though she may lose possibly in the 
years to come, her very name ; yet, while this church of Christ 
stands, it will stand by the truth of God, it will stand by the 
old symbols the fathers have handed down to her, faithful to 
the end. And so she bids you, children and grandchildren, 
as you leave her fold to-day, to go back to your own homes 
and own fire-sides, to take back with you the spirit of vitality, 
that you breathe in anew as you come to these old haunts of 
your youth, of the years long gone by. But I remind myself 
that I am to speak but five minutes, and I think I must have 
spoken five minutes and a half. 

Me. Ives. You will now hear a response from the oldest 
daughter. 

Response from the First Church of Woodbury, 

Rev. J. A. Freeman. 

As representing this daughter to-day, I say, Here are we 
and those whom God has given us. We do rejoice to be 
present with you to-day, and to speak this word of congratu- 



51 



lation. I think perhaps it may be well when I commence to let 
you down just a little: we have been going up pretty well. 
But the element of brevity comes in here, and this saying I 
have heard: "Be learned or unlearned; formal or informal, 
wise or unwise, only be brief." We will all be brief, dear 
friends, we will all be brief. There is something, however, to 
say that I think is very important now, in reference to the 
relation this daughter, that has gone out from Stratford, has 
to the old mother; and it seems to me that the relation is not 
very different from what the relation between the mother and 
her children always is. I look around and about on these pan- 
els, and I see these different names, and I remember many v'ears 
ago the oldest daughter going' out from home, and coming 
back, after the years were past, with her children. We come 
to-day to congratulate, to be one with you. What is the use 
of it all? What is the use of a daughter going to California, 
or Washington Territory, or Oregon, oi' any of those places ? 
What is the use? Why are not the daughters and all the 
granddaughters here in Stratford? Why haven't they lived 
here through the years up to the present moment and enjoyed 
the society of mother and grandmother? Why, it is the same 
old story, illustrated by us, illustrated by the grandchildren, 
illustrated all the time, the eagle stirring up the nest and the 
young being turned out of the old place to find their new 
homes and fulfill their destiny. So up among the hills two 
hundred and twenty years ago almost, the daughter went for 
better or for worse ; and the hills in the Pomperaug valley 
now see a change, the hills feel the influence of the separation 
that came two hundred years and more ago. They feel that 
influence whether Calvinist, Presbyterians, or this, that and 
the other, what the difference ? It is God's way, it is God's 
Avay, putting down his hand into the nest and stirring up the 
nest, and the young birds go, and there are new homes, and 
you see the results of it all. 

Now, there is one thing that I want to say, to-day, that we 
can boast about a little when we come back. These children 
you have spoken of so well — now there are children to show 
for themselves. They are a very modest people — 



52 



Dr. Hall. They get that from the grandmother. 

Mr. Freeman. Yes, they get it from the grandmother. 
They are very modest, ver}' modest indeed. They are all very 
modest, especially the youngest daughter ; the youngest grand- 
daughter is very modest indeed. They are all modest, nice 
children : they are all nice children, all clean, all do just right. 
AVe have brought them back here. As a matter of fact, in 
reference to Avhat you have said, there is not a daughter, 
neither of these daughters I believe, certainly not this one and 
the daughter of this one on the hills, that has ever let down 
the great principle of the mother here in this church, not one 
of them ; and they have lived there, and they have touched 
that whole region, and they have carried the principles of which 
we have heard to-day in that whole region. Daughter, — 
Woodbury First Church, 1G70, and grandchildren, with their 
names around in this house on these different j^anels, they ai'e 
not ashamed to come back here, to-day, and speak of what 
they are, as related to the mother and the principles thej^ have 
held through all these years. 

Mr. Ives. Mr. Hall has taken the Woodbury Church with 
the children. We shall now hear a greeting from Mr. Fitch 
to the rest of the family. 

Rev. F. S. Fitch. I remember some sixteen years ago as a 
theological student in my senior year, at the invitation of Mr. 
Sedgwick, coming over here to spend the Sunday; and as I 
walked along the north of the church to his residence, I was 
very much delighted with its external appearance, and as I 
passed to the centre of the street I Avas charmed with the 
view Avhicli stretched out far to the south: and the village 
and the church of Stratford has looked lovely in my eyes ever 
since. I have been absent from you more years than I was 
with you ; and yet I am sure I can say, as I have no doubt 
Brother Hall can say, that w^e have never lost our love for this 
church or its members, or our pride in its inheritance. My 
early life was spent in Ohio, and my early student days in 
Oberlin, in the early days of anti-slavery excitement. And my 
conception of religious life and the church life was one, in which 



r,3 



earnestness and fervor were the essential elements. I remem- 
ber while in New Haven, as a member of the old Center Church, 
that, with a young man's pharisaism, — I suppose it must have 
been, — I was some little time in discovering ver}- much piety 
in the Center Church ; and, I suppose, had I known this church 
at that time, I should have been equally slow to discern the 
hidings of its strength. But my acquaintance with the First 
Church in New Haven and my acquaintance with this church, 
following the Western life of my boyhood, and preceding the 
Western pastorates, which I have had in two Western cities, 
have been of incalculable benefit to me. They have given me 
the power of appreciating, in some degree, the element of 
time in church life, and the element of time in the unfoldin"- 
and the manifestation of j^ersonal character ; and I am sure 
that in the historic lessons, Ave have been learning in the last 
few years, both in our church life and national life, we all of 
us, whether members of these historic churches or members 
of the newer churches of some other part of the land, are 
coming to appreciate, as we never did before, the conservative 
and preserving power of these ancient churches. There are 
some to-day, who question the place of the church of Christ 
among the forces of modern society, who call our attention to 
the press, to the platform, to the scientific congress and to 
the many influences, which are permeating and characteriziuo- 
modern life. But I am sure that to-day, in this presence, and 
crowded and pressed as we are Avith the memories of the past, 
that Ave Avill be very sIoav to admit that there is anj^thing, 
which God in his goodness has given this nation, Avhich is of 
more value or, which has more manifest marks of his approval 
and affection than the gift, to this ancient church, of his Son. 
HoAv many ministers, how many missionaries, how many Chris- 
tian Avorkers have gone out from the circle of churches Avhich 
are to-day represented in this maternal home ! I remember, 
Avhen I Avas called upon to hear Avords of greeting from Brother 
Palmer and all the rest, the day of my ordination in this 
church, sixteen years ago, Avhen our honored and beloved 
President DAvight preached the sermon, and Avhen Brother 
Palmer gave the charge to the pastor, and Brother Davenport 



54 



the right hand of fellowship, and it seems to me a very curious 
dut}^ that I should be called upon to give any words of greet- 
ing to you, for it seems but yesterday when you laid your 
hands on my inexperienced and untried head, and set me apart 
to the sacred office of pastor of this flock. But we are re- 
minded by these changes and by these differences of relation, 
that we are all brethren, and that we have one common Head, 
even the Lord Jesus Christ. And as years and experience 
come to me I rejoice more and more in the work of the Chris- 
tian ministry, and I trust I appreciate with some measure of 
earnestness and seriousness the value of these churches to 
this Commonwealth, and to our great Nation. 

Is the problem of the hour the labor problem? Where can 
Ave find any satisfactory solution except in the gospel of our 
Lord Jesus Christ ? Is it a question of good order among all 
the diversified classes of our national life ? Where are we. to 
find any fraternity, any abiding love except that which comes 
from the brotherhood of the Lord Jesus "? Is it a question of 
education? The church has not only been the mother of us 
all but our teacher. Yale University is known in many parts 
of the land and the world, where these New England village 
churches are not known ; but we come here and the historian 
tells us of a time, which antedated the birth of that venerable 
university, and the relation of these pastors and this people 
to the very foundation of that ancient seat of learning. And 
were it possible for us to trace all the influences, that have 
centered about that venerable seat of learning we can find that 
very much of it had come from the choicest life of the churches 
of our order in this Commonwealth. It is a National Univer- 
sity; it is catholic toward all sects; it is hospitable toward 
all ideas ; it is ready for any new truth ; and yet the source 
of its inspiration and the warrant of its being was the spon- 
sorship given by these earl}^ churches. I welcome all the 
churches that have been mentioned by name most heartily in 
the name of this mother church; and, as one by one, we see- 
your faces and hear your voices, we will join in the universal 
i'e Deum that God has given us such rich memories and such 
a worthy parentage, and wherever our lot may be cast we will 



55 

try to be true to the clinrches of our order in tbis ancient 
Commonwealth. 

Mr. Ives. Rev. Mr. Pahner will respond in behalf of the 
First Church, which has been so prolific of good in our neigh- 
boring city. 

Response from the First Church, Bridgeport, 

Rev. C. R. Palmer. 

The relation of the First Church of Bridgeport to this 
ancient church in Stratford is certainly somewhat peculiar. 
It is not often that a child is blessed Avith two mothers ; and 
yet it must be admitted that just as truly as the Stratford 
church is the mother of the First Church of Bridgeport, the 
Fairfield church is the mother of the First Church of Bridge- 
port. But we have this to remember that is in favor of the 
Stratford Church. When a movement began to set off from 
the Town of Stratford a few members, and from the Town of 
Fairfield a few members, to be incorporated as the Stratfield 
Parish, of which the First Church in Bridgeport is the out- 
growth, our Fairfield mother was exceedingly unwilling to 
part with her children. The tradition is that she thought she 
should miss the pew taxes ; and she went so far as to resist, 
in the General Court, a bill to incorporate the Parish of Strat- 
field for two or three years, and it was after four years, if I 
remember ai'ight, that her opposition was overcome. Now 
there is no record that the Stratford mother ever showed any 
reluctance to have us go. Either, there were some people 
there as to whom she felt that their room was better than 
their company, or else there was a generous, liberal spirit here 
in Stratford, that said, "Let the children go, let them set up 
for themselves, we shall be all the better by-and-by because 
they do." Now, as there is no record that the first alternative, 
which I mentioned was the correct one, I incline to believe 
the latter Avas the correct one. And, standing here to repre- 
sent that ancient Stratfield church, I rejoice and give thanks 
in the remembrance that the mother was liberal and generous 
enouo-h to let us ao with her blessins". 



Wei], sir, a good many years have passed away. Very soon 
we expect to celebrate the second centennial of the incorjiora- 
tion of that church. Things are moving fast. Perhaps, by 
that day, this will be the North Congregational Church of 
Bridgeport. If so, the mother will outrank us entirely, and 
we shall have to bow, whereas now we boast to be the oldest 
church in Bridgeport. We rejoice very much in our children, 
some of whom have grown to be larger than ourselves, but 
they all will join, I am sure, in welcoming you back to Bridge- 
port wheu you shall come. 

Seriously, sir, I have a great deal of sympathy with the re- 
marks which my Brother Fitch has made. A church of Christ 
in New England, with its ancient foundation and its centuries 
of history, is a splendid record if you can appreciate it. It is 
not merely what you see when you come into this town of 
Stratford ; it is not merely what you see when you come in 
and look at the First Church of Bridgeport : it is not merely 
what you see when you come into Milford and look at the 
First Church of Milford, which measures the significance of 
one of these ancient records. Why, sir, what fountains of in- 
fluence these churches have been. Four or five weeks ago I 
was preaching out in Central New York and when I got 
through and came down out of the pulj^it, a lady came for- 
ward to meet me: "I want to speak to speak to you, sir," she 
said. "Very well, ma'am," I rejoined, "I am very happy to 
see you." She said, " I am a Stratford woman, and I couldn't 
see a Bridgeport minister in this pulpit and not want to greet 
him." In how many communities should we find Stratford 
people — why, they are scattered the countr^^ over and every 
where, I dare say, as in that instance, they represent the best 
elements of the commuuit3^ So it is. Why, I have been 
pastor, not a great while, but long enough to remember 
Brother Hall here and to have taken j^art in Brother Fitch's 
installation, and Brother Dana's and Brother Ives'; and in 
my own church the people have scattered from it the country 
over till there is hardly a region in the whole nation where I 
can not put my finger upon some one and another and say, 
there is one that has gone out from this old church in Bridge- 
port. 



5Y 

Well, sir, there is a peculiar value in these ancient and long 
continued cliurclies. I had to baptize a child one day in my 
church, and the grandfather said to me, '^ Well, sir, there is 
the beginning of the ninth generation in this church." Now, 
it is of value that there are communities where there are con- 
tinuous lines of godly family history ; of families trained in 
the fear of God, in the love of liberty, of righteousness and of 
truth. It is a proud record that this church has ; it is a proud 
record that all these ancient New England churches have, 
that they have ministered to the development of the history 
of this nation in this indirect way of scattering children taught 
in the fear of God and the love of right and truth and liberty 
all over this broad country. 

Once more, sir, as representing the First Church of Bridge- 
port, we hail and congratulate our Stratford mother. We re- 
joice in the continuance of her history to this day. We re- 
joice in her prosperity. This morning when we saw the cross 
purposes between the choir and the minister about the hymn 
we could not help thinking, a good deal of the independent 
spirit of years gone by is with lier yet. Perhaps it is just as 
well : she will live the longer ! 

Mr. Ives. You remember the parable of the sheep that was 
lost. In hunting up our children we were delighted in happen- 
ing upon a child that was lost off on the Newtown hills, and 
we greet her to-day. 

Response from the Church in Newtown. 

Kev J. P. HOYT. 

I wish to take half a moment, of the live minutes assigned 
me, in relating an incident very briefly. It is said that, in a 
convention or gathering similar to this, the pastor of the 
church, in offering the introductory prayer, forgot for the 
moment there was more than one speaker, and so invoked the 
divine blessing upon the speaker of the afternoon. Theu, re- 
membering that there was another, he offered a petition for 
him,, but, just as he was closing, he remembered that there 
was another still, and more to follow, and so he said in his 



58 



closiDg words, "and may the Lord have mercy on the third 
speaker and those who are to follow him, and all those who 
are to listen to him."' I cannot but think that my brother, 
the pastor of this church, is offering this prayer mentally, and 
I am very glad that I am not the nineteenth speaker, to whom 
you will listen after a few moments have passed. 

But in regard to this lost sheep, to whom the pastor has 
referred, I am ver}' glad to come to you to-day and say, the 
lost is found, and we are glad to be here and join in these 
greetings. But we deny that we were ever lost! We think 
the mistake is with the pastor of this church, as I can prove 
to you out of his own mouth, or rather, from his own pen ; for, 
in writing to me on this subject, he said, we welcome you as a 
child; although, until I investigated the matter, I was in 
utter ignorance that we had a child upon the Newtown hills. 
Well, my friends, the fact is that this ancient church of Strat- 
ford is like the Queen of England in one respect, she has many 
daughters most happily settled in life : and there are so many 
of them that I suppose she sometimes forgets their names and 
forgets where they are and how they are. For example, there 
is the church in Bridgeport from whom we have just heard. 
She is the Princess Koyal of the Royal Family, and has an 
empire of her own by the sea, and right grandly does she 
hold it and sway it. 

Then there is the Woodbury cluirch who may be compared 
to the Princess of Lome, if I may use that name. She has 
wandered up towards Canada, far away from the mother 
church. But she does not dwell there lorn and lone, but she 
is in a vast Congregational berry field, Waterbury, Roxbury, 
Middleburj', Southbury, etc., etc. These are only specimens 
of the beautiful, bounteous, glorious fruits which the branches 
of this mother church have borne as they have run over the 
walls. Now, I am here to-day to represent before you the 
third daughter of this ancient church, who has stayed nearer 
the homestead and who has always been consociated with her 
mother and this family of churches ; and we, who form this 
Consociation of Fairfield East, gather around our mother to 
day, and we ask her blessing ; and all her children rise up and 



59 



bless lier. We are proud of our parentage ; and, as we united 
to-day in singing the liymn, " Blest be the tie that binds," our 
hearts, as well as our voices, rendered blessing unto the Great 
Head of the church for thus binding us closely and lovingly 
together. 

But there are some special ties which unite us to this 
mother church, to which I may briefly allude, though the time 
is so brief I can only outline them. The first tie is in the 
name Newtown itself. There is a tradition, (and this has be- 
come the certainty of a fact in my mind as I have investigated 
it,) that Newtown was called Newtown in order to distinguish 
her from the old town of Stratford, from which she was set 
off. So we are in Newtown : you are in Old-town ; and all 
the characters which Mrs. Beecher Stowe has rendered famous 
and illustrious in her " Oldtown Folks " live here in Stratford 
without doubt. Then again, the early settlers of Newtown 
came from Stratford. The Hawleys avIio founded Hawleyville 
came from this place, and they gave their name to that future 
city. There was a family named Clark who came from this 
place, and one of the descendants of that family told me only 
this week that her ancestor, who originally came from Strat- 
ford, feeling the need of help in clearing away the wild land 
of Newtown, came back to Stratford ; and what do you think 
he did ? He bought a slave here in Stratford, a negro boy 
eight years old, paying eight pounds for him, a pound for 
every year of his life; carried him to Newtown, and, when 
there was a declaration of independence, as far as slavery was 
concerned, in this Commonwealth, gave him his freedom ; but 
the noble colored brother said, " You have cared for me in my 
boyhood, I will care for you in your old age ;" and he remained 
with him till the day of his death. Then there w'as a man by 
the name of Jeremiah Turner, who came from Stratford to 
NeAvtown ; and it is recorded on a monument in one of the old 
cemeteries, that he was the father of the first male child born 
in Newtown. It is also recorded in the Town Records, I 
think, that he returned to Stratford for a wife. This Jeiemiah 
Turner returned, so he was a re-Turner to the old Town of 
Stratford, and I venture to say that there were no " lamenta- 



€0 



tiofis ~ c^ ikiAi JcToniah over b^ choice : and iroBk th^ day 
toUus X emioma people bmve been m^rrjii^ Stratfaid peo^e^ 
llie dangiiier of oar sonor deacon married a Stratford brother, 
aad he is nor deactm in the X emtomii church. So tou irill 
see hoT we are tied fcogedi^ bj these menHxies of the past 
as wen as of ibe present. 

Bat the most istaestii^ tie. and I alfaide to this in dosiiig, 
J/r. Moiker. is this: th^ the most succes^ol pastor the 
dmrefa in Nevtown erer had was a natire of Stratford. Ber. 
I>aTid Jndson. bora, as I have been told since I came h^ne to- 
day, near the foot of toot Aeademj MilL He had a pastorate 
of <Mie-third of a c^tmy in Xevtovn. and was loved when 
th^« and in all the churches of this region. He was a rero- 
bitinMT v sfddier or fhaphhi- and died in the war. and his 
graTe is with i^ in the Xewtown conet^y to this daj ; and a 
bcantifQl and suggestiTe fact connected with it is. that, oat of 
the Tery heart of the grave, theze is grewii^ an evergreen 
tree.kepang aKve. in the ntemorj oS. ids soceessois and thine 
who hare takoi op the work after him. the n iCMM >r» of that 
good and godlj man. Bev. David Jodson. of Stratford. With 
these m^mcMies in my mind, willing I could say more, bat lim- 
iting myself to this. Newtown, with her fertile famiR. with her 
maanfactarEs. with h/er four different raihoads, soon to be- 
come five, with her hundreds (A indostiioas ritianpns. we crane 
back to oar mother to-day. and extoid to her oar greet- 
ings and ccmgratolatiais: and we say. giving it a meaning 
more true and deep and tender than the £ngltsfaman can when 
they sing that song. -God save the Qaecn.~ — the Qoeoi 
mother of aD these ehnrdte& And we revacnthr add. God 
save the churches then^selves. and aD the members oi these 
chnrchesi. and bring as aD home at last to the great family 
gathcring in the palace oi the ^nak King. 

Afg- Itss^ Before singing the 1309th Hymn. I deaie to say 
that tb^e were no ~croi3S parpo6es.~ as ifoothsr Palma- sog- 
gested. bat only an earnest deare on the part of the.dioir 
lead^ to f d[[ow oat my wi^tes and make the services as brief 
as poeaUe. TTe wiU now hear the red|KMse &oni the church 



61 



in Huntiugton. "Will those Avho are to respond from Trum- 
bull and Monroe please come forward so as to liaA-e no delay. 

Response from the Church in Huntington, 

Eev. a. J. Park. 

Venerable Mother : We come to you to-day Avith greeting, 
realizing how precious is this tliought of coming home to our 
mother. The affection and love of children to mothers is that 
Avhich can be realized only in the heart. It can never be told. 
And we come, dear mother, as a child already one hundred 
and sixty-five years old last February, not so very youthful, 
and yet vigorous and strong. In bringing you greetings it 
seemed to me that perhaps a bit of history of that little 
church away up there, that was called Ripton parish once, — 
now Huntington, — might be profitable. In 1724 the mother 
went up there and performed the nuptial vows that made a 
new church with a pastor who began a ministry among those 
hills and forty-eight years labored there alone, (in the forty- 
ninth year of his ministry they called an associate,) and living 
for three years longer, completed about fifty- two years of pas- 
torate. Dr. Ely, who was called as an associate of Jeremiah 
Mills, was forty-three years there as a pastor. Unfortunately, 
somehow the records of Brother Mills pastorate have nearly all 
been lost. Only a mere sketch of the organization of the church 
is to be found ; no record of the numl)er of members that were 
added to the church during his ministry, nor those that were 
baptized. From the time that Dr. Ely came into the church, 
the records appear very correctly, and we have received from 
that time, with those who were at the organization of the 
church, something over three hundred and thirty, making an 
average of five and a-half annually gathered into the church. 
Dr. Ely, when he became pastor, adopted the special part of 
the Covenant which reads as follows : " That you will endeavor 
by the strength of God to walk in all his commandments and 
ordinances blameless, desiring to put yourselves under the 
watch and care of this church, to be trained up in the school 
of Christ for His Heavenly Kingdom, promising also that you 
will give up your children to God in baptism and to bring 



62 



them up in the fear of the Lord."' A little part of that I have 
never seen in any Covenant before. As a result of this you 
may see in the records of Dr. Ely, baptized in the church in 
forty-three years, eight hundred and fifty-seven, a yearly aver- 
age of twenty ; thus bringing before us a thought that it seems 
to me we need to go back to, realizing our Covenant relation- 
ship with God, realizing our obligation as Christian parents 
to our children, inheritors with us of the blessings and priv- 
ileges of the gospel. This part of the Covenant seems to have 
been left out at the end of his ministry', but during the next 
twenty-eight yeai's the yearly average was six and a-seventh, 
and during the last forty-five years only two and a-half. So 
we see how the gradual diminishing of the thought of this 
covenant relation of parents with their children has grown up 
among the peoj)le. The largest membership of the church 
was in the year 1833, when the number reached two hundred 
and three. During the last forty-five years there have been 
ten preachers. I believe only two of them have been installed, 
their time of labor ranging from a year and a-half to six years 
and a-half, so j'ou see while the time has been about equal to 
that of Dr. Ely, ten ministers have occupied the pulpit, and 
the results have been only partially what they were during 
his, in regard to the receiving and baptizing of children, and, 
also, to the membership of the church. 

Now, as we have only this moment, let us pray that God 
will bless and pi^osper, not only the mother but the children 
in all that which tends to build up and to establish the faith 
of the saints. Praying that God may bless and cheer and 
comfort you in this your age, we greet you with our richest 
blessing. 

Mk. Ives. Mr. H. L. Fairchild for the church in Unity. 

Response from the Church in Trumbull, 

H. L. Fairchild. 

Mr. Mother: I would be glad to be consigned in accor- 
dance with your mother goose insinuation, but our church has 
grown altogether too old for any such consignment. To your 



63 



kindly greetings and hearty welcome Ave respond to-day with 
the heartiest thanks ; and it seems, as we come before you on 
such a memorable family gathering, that it is entirely proper 
that the daughter should tell some of her experiences; and I 
was reminded by your suggestion in regard to the main chance 
at the dinner of an incident which occurred a few years l)efore 
our church was organized, at about the time of the early set- 
tlement. Then there was a great snow. Cotton Mather tells 
us of it in his ''Magnalia."' It was about the year 1717, and, if 
the accounts are at all correct, it completely distances the 
blizzard of a year and a-half ago. The people in Stratford 
became solicitous in rega)"d to the stock of provision in the 
outlying settlements; so a party went out, dug their way 
through up into our region, and found a house vei'y nearly 
covered with snow, the chimney barely peeping out. They 
found their way inside, and, instead of a shortness, the people 
there were just sitting down to a dinner of roast wild turkey, 
and they with great benevolence joined the circle and helped 
demolish the turkey. I think, Mr. Mother, that we have to- 
day paid off the score, if not before ! 

Our first minister, the Rev. Richardson Minor, settled, as 
you see, in 1730, was a man of ceremonious, formal, methodical 
habits, and, as might naturally be expected, after a successful 
ministry of fourteen years, he joined the more prosperous 
ministry of the Episcopal church, and, in doing so, you have 
referred to his giving you nuich trouble. He gave us still 
more, for our church was' practically demoralized and dis- 
heartened, and it took us four years more to recuperate and 
start again. Then followed the ministry of Rev. James Beebe, 
a man in singular contrast to his pedecessor, being active, vig- 
orous, and independent. His independence, perhaps, was 
shown in his treatment of church counsels; for, while he 
was Avarm-hearted in his fellowship with all the neighboring 
churches, he would brook nothing like authority. His own 
church was independent in that respect. His courage was 
manifest during the French war, for, after several seasons of 
disheartening disaster, he aroused his people and enlisted 
them for the war, and went with them himself in the succes- 



64 

fill campaign which jjerinanentJy checked the French power. 
Likewise again, in the darkest days of the Revolution, he went 
with the army for six months at Valley Forge ; and perhaps 
in nothing was his independence more clearly shown than in 
his complete disdain of English orthography, for in looking 
over his record in his marching list may be found on a single 
page the word "March"' spelled in eight different ways. His 
pastorate lasted for thirty-eight years. The next longest pas- 
torate is that of the Eev. N. T. Merwin, about twenty-five years, 
too recent for me to speak of, further than to say his evident 
aim Avas to live '-Wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove." 
These three pastorates cover very nearly half of our life as a 
church. 

We have had many good deacons of the genuine New Eng- 
land sort, one of whom said one day to a neighbor that he 
considered his office worth to him, in the way of business, $50 
a year. It is also said of one of our deacons that he held the 
office for over fifty years, and was present at every communion, 
and during all the years of his active service only failed once 
to officiate. On that occasion, on his way to the meeting, on 
horseback, he was thrown from his horse and broke his collar- 
bone. He sat through the morning service, and then was 
obliged to retire to have the bone adjusted. An aged St. 
Louis lady, long since dead, told me the story; and, although 
sainted, I am almost afraid to call her aged ! Another Avidow, 
almost ninety years of age, among us, was one day asked by a 
younger relative how old she was. "A very improper (|ues- 
tion," was the reply, " under the circumstances a very im- 
proper question, indeed." A good Christian and charitable 
lirother among us one Fast Day morning was approached by 
a neighbor pleading illness, and he sold him a glass of spirits. 
That day, on his way to meeting, he found the young men and 
boys playing the national game of ball on the Green. In holy 
indignation he remonstrated, but in vain. Then he proceeded 
to take down their names for prosecution, but, being re- 
minded of the sale of cider in the morning, he saw the situa- 
tion, and so charitably forebore to prosecute ! 

We have through all these years fairly maintained our 



65 



strength, althougli our town has increasscl but litt'e in popu- 
lation, and although many other churches have come in ; yet 
our numbers are to-day greater than at any time in our past 
history; and we come here joyfully to congratulate you on 
your illustrious history of two hundred and fifty years. We 
congratulate you on the number of colonies which you have 
sent out as churches to be influences for good. We congrat- 
ulate you on the individuals who have gone out from you to 
almost every part of the world to maintain the standard of 
right, and we especially congratulate you for the tide Avhich 
is rolling in upon you from the west, which, like a new ele- 
ment to reinvigorate, is like the notorious elixir; for we be- 
lieve, with others that have spoken here to-day, that a church 
has no right to grow old, much less to die, so long as there 
are souls to save; and the best wish that we can extend to 
you to day is that responsibility may so come in upon you 
that by exercise you shall maintain a manly, useful strength, 
a radiant, maidenly, Christian loveliness, to win souls to Christ. 

Mr. Ives. You will next hear from New Stratford, Deacon 
W. Well Lewis. I hope Deacon Lewis will take the platform, 
otherw'ise it is almost impossible for those in the galleries to 
hear. It is of no nse to speak if you cannot make yourself 
heard. 

Response from the Church in Monroe, 

Deacon W. Wells Lewis. 

It would be very natural for any person in this house, after 
hearing such kindly words of welcome, after listening to so 
many words of greeting, and after hearing so much that is 
calculated to benefit and instruct, to be able to say something. 
I am here to-day, and the thought that suggested itself to me 
as I came down here was : "I am coming home, coming home." 
Now, the sound of my voice never before was heard within 
these walls, yet I am one of your number, I am one of your 
household, I am one of your family. I am here to-day to hold 
out to you friendly greetings. I am here to-day to enter into 
your sympathies. I am here to-day to be one among you. 



66 

A loug' period of yeuis ago, this church put forth its 
branches, and many branches of righteousness have grown up 
and become transplanted in the heavenly Jerusalem above. 
The thought suggested itself to me: Suppose that all the 
members of this household, suppose that all this company 
should be gathered together and should rise up to you to-day, 
how large a church would we need in order to accommodate 
you ? A very large structure would certainly be needed. In 
the little town of Monroe our church is not large, our mem- 
bers are few : yet we have those there, that are praying men. 
We have praying men, praying women. There are those there 
who live daily in the atmosphere of a Saviour's love. There 
are those who live in constant, daily commvinion with their 
God. They are fully satisfied that in order to reach Christian 
manhood and womanhood they have got to seek for it, they 
have got to work for it. We have an active minister, a min- 
ister that is not satisfied with theory alone, but theory and 
practice must go hand in hand. I am exceedingly sorry that 
he could not be here to-day to resjDond to this call. We have 
in the little town of Monroe a Society of Christian Endeavor 
which is doing a mighty work. It is doing a powerful work, 
more perhaj^s than any other young people's organization Ave 
have ever had there. Taking it altogether, although our num- 
bers are few, we say in the language of David, " If God be 
for us who can be against us?'' And now, this gathering here 
to-day is a joyous one, it is a glorious one, it is one that will 
be remembered a long time. Will it not, my brethren, be re- 
membered till that glorious gathering when all these grand- 
children, when all these great-grandchildren, when all these 
sons and daughters, that have grown up as the branches of 
the spiritual vine shall stand up triumphant together in the 
streets of the New Jerusalem? I am here to-day to hold out 
to you the right-hand of Christian fellowship. -I am here to 
mingle my voice with your voices, and also to receive the ben- 
ediction of the mother. Finally, friends, when this mighty 
work shall be accomplished ; when we shall go away, as we 
soon shall to our homes, we shall separate one from another, 
and we shall have formed acquaintances here that will never 



67 

be jforgotten ; and when we come to meet each other this 
gathering Avill be spoken of. Reminiscences Avill be brought 
up. The kindly feelings entertained here, the new acquaint- 
ances that we have formed here, will be held up there; but 
this will not be the end of it. Eternity, Eternity itself will 
only disclose the glorious reality of this home gathering. 

Singing, Hymn written for the occasion, by the pastor. 
[See page 11.] 

Mr. Ives. We will now hear a response from the church in 
Southbury by the Rev. David C. Pierce. 

Response from the Church in Southbury, 

Rev. David C. Pierce. 

The grandchild of Southbury cordially responds to your 
kind greeting ; and we will say that, although you have traces 
of antiquity about you, Ave Avould scarcely know it, and we 
rejoice that there is no decadence in strength. We rejoice to 
be with you and all the children and grandchildren that have 
gathered together here upon this happy occasion ; and although 
we stand here before jon representing a grandchild of this 
ancient church, yet we feel that in a certain sense we also have a 
little of antiquity about us.. It is about one hundred and fifty- 
seven years since the church was first started to preach the Word 
of God in Southbury. Branching oft' from the First Church 
of Woodbury, they erected a church in the beautiful valley of 
Pomperaug, and we feel particularly proud that we may say 
that the first pastor of that church, the Rev. John Graham, 
Avas a descendant of the Marquis of Montrose, who labored 
there some thirty-three j'ears, and was a most etficient and 
worthy laborer in the Church of Christ. To show you some 
of the disadvantages, when we started, although they began 
service immediately after he was settled, yet it was some three 
years before the church was finished, and for those three years, 
during the greater portion of the time, they worshipped with 
only a part of a floor laid ; the windows were not in place and 
a large portion of the building unplastered. At that time 



68 



they bad no means of warming the church except such little 
means as were provided by foot-stoves, the ladies brought to 
church. Now, we should think it hard, indeed, to worship 
among the inclemency of our New England winters in the 
structures of those times and have no better warmth than one 
fireplace. The Rev. John Graham lived there until feebleness 
and sickness coming on, put a close to his labors, but he re- 
mained some eight years longer till he died. His remains now 
rest in the North Cemetery in our village. After him came 
Benjamin "Wildman, who labored some forty-seven years in 
that church, a man noted for his wit and the aptness of his re- 
plies. It was during his ministry, in the year 1772, that the 
second church Avas erected. The first building was used as a 
place of worship some forty years. After him came a succes- 
sion of laborers in the field, among them the Eev. Elias Wood, 
who labored some three years, who was followed by the Rev. 
Daniel Clark, who labored three years longer ; and during the 
next seven years there was no settled minister, but they were 
supplied by three or four laborers in the service. After this 
came the Rev. Thomas Shipman, father of Judge Shipman, 
who Avas with them ten years, and was a most efficient laborer, 
and during the period of his ministry there was a large revival 
and many were received into the church. There was one item 
I forgot to mention when I was speaking of the first minister, 
the Rev. John Graham, showing the efficiency of his labors, 
that during the period of his ministry over three hundred mem- 
bers were received into the church, and over eight hundred 
children were baptized. 'J'hus we feel that we can show a 
record concernuig the former laborers in this branch of the 
Lord's heritage that shows that we had earnest men in the 
days of old; and although we, like our grandmother, show 
something of the signs of decadence, as yovi know that many 
of the New England villages are not in a flourishing condition, 
but population is being drawn off toward the centers of trade 
and commerce; jet we trust we have something of the spirit 
of God in us, and we can cordially respond to the greeting 
upon this occasion and desire that all the children and grand- 
children who are represented here to-day may unite together, 



69 

with this ancient church, in ascribing- praise unto God who 
hath wrought thus far in his work amongst us, and that we 
may be counted as worthy laborers as well as the fathers of 
old, in carrying forward this good work ; and with that view 
in mind the church which I represent sends to you this senti- 
ment: In memory of our venerable forefathers who were so 
earnest in the cause of God : May we imitate their vii'tues and 
may we strive to follow in their footsteps, ever bearing in mind, 
their memory with tender emotions. 

Mr. Ives. We will now hear from Dr. Bellamy on the hills 
of Bethlehem by the mouth of the beloved John— my class- 
mate, the Eev. John P. Trowbridge. 

Eesponse from the Church ui Bethlehem, 

Rev. J. P. Trowbridge. 

Beloved Brother : Fifteen years ago last Spring we went 
out together from our studies in a Theological Seminary, and 
now, to-day, we meet, you to represent an aged and superb 
grandmother, and I to represent a curly-headed grandchild. 
And in meeting thus together upon this happy commemorative 
occasion, our minds have of course those feelings natural to 
class-mates who sojourned together and studied together for 
three years, natural to those who at the same time or nearly 
at the same time began the Christian min'istry, natural to those 
who have in the work of the Christian ministry been endeavor- 
ing- to present the truth as it is in Christ. Many of you re- 
member that Mr. Longfellow, near the close of his life, when 
he was called upon to participate in exercises of deep interest 
to himself and to the college of which he was a graduate, be- 
gan, that beautiful poem, one of the most beautiful of all 
his writings, by citing the custom of the Eoman Gladiator, 
saving, "We, who are about to die, salute you." And I have 
thought, as I have anticipated this pleasant meeting with the 
ancient church of Stratford, that if in those ancient days of 
Rome, amid the pageants and surroundings where they were 
placed, they could look up at theii- great rulers and say, as they 
were about to enter into a contest like that which we are enter- 



70 

ing- into, against principalities and powers in the high places 
of the earth, '-We, who are about to die, salute you," certainly 
their brethren and friends in the Christian ministry, we who 
have not died, Ave who are representatives of the ancient church 
of New England, who cannot expect to die, may certainly with 
great gratitude and joy salute this ancient church, its pastor, 
its membership, it daughters and its granddaughters. We 
come here to-day, amid these favorable influences and bright 
surroundings. We greet one another as a common family. 
Our names are all on a common line, none of them being ele- 
vated above the other, all standing together in a common place 
representing upon a common platform the unity and the brother- 
hood that we enjoy. We are grateful for the memories of the 
past, grateful for the truth that has been proclaimed, as it has 
been represented in the discourse this morning from the nmi- 
istry of this ancient church, to uphold the gospel in its purity 
and power. Every one of these churches has pecular memories. 
The church in Bethlehem has a peculiar tribute of gratitude to 
bring to lay upon the altar here of her grandmother's affection 
and household care. Turn back to the early history of the 
church in the east part of the north purchase, now called Wood- 
bury, and you find that Dr. Bellamy was licensed to preach 
the gospel when, I think, he was. eighteen years of age, in the 
year 1736, by the Fairfield East Association of ministers, with 
which the pastors of this church, I doubt not, have been gen- 
erally associated, and in 1754, when great events in the life of 
Dr. Bellamy occuiTcd, and he was so earnestly called to go to 
the First Presbyterian Church in New York and there labor 
and spend the most fruitful years of his life, he laid the mat- 
ter, that was so weighty upon his mind, that he could not 
decide at first, before the Consociation of Litchfield County ; 
and after they had deliberated sufficiently in regard to it, not 
being able to come to a decision, they called to their fellow- 
ship, and for mutual consideration, the Fairfield East Conso- 
ciation, with which this church has been connected. So you 
see, friends, that his early Christian life work was at Bethle- 
hem, where the best years of his life were spent, and where it 
is a providence of God that he was permitted to live, for if he 



71 

had gone to New York, whence he wns called with such earnest- 
ness, at the time he was called, and had spent in that metrop- 
olis the best years of his life, during the confusion of the Rev- 
olutionary War it is very doubtful, if he ever would have given 
to the church of New England the body of divinity that he 
composed, and have exerted the influence he did as a theolog- 
ical teacher in the early history of New England. So I do not 
exceed the bounds of the truth and the proper exjwession of 
it when I say we are deeply obligated, not simpl}- in Bethlehem, 
but all the churches of Connecticut, for the influences that the 
church of Stratford and the consociated churches in the Fair- 
IJeld East Consociation exerted upon the mind of Dr. Bellamy, 
that kept him within our limits ; and that enabled him to live 
and devote his time to that work that has made him pre-eminent 
in our Commonwealth as a writer, as a theological thinker, as 
a teacher in the chair of Theology. I bless God to-day that I 
am permitted to bring to you the congratulations of the church 
• of which he was the first minister, over which for Mty years 
he Avas the faithful pastor, and from which his spirit speaks 
to-day. 

Me. Ives. You will listen now to the greeting from the 
church in Washington, another granddaughter, by Deacon E. 
W. Woodruff. 

Response from the Church in Washington, 

Deacon E. W. Woodkuff. 

Well, Grandmother, I bring to you Mr. Turner's best and 
sincere regrets that he cannot be here to-day to greet you, 
therefore I come in his place. Y'^ou will not let me tell what 
we have done up there, 1 can't with that five minute sword 
hanging over my head; but I will tell you what we have got, 
and I bet you can't guess. What do you guess? We have 
got a Swedish baby. It was born the first Sacramental season 
in May, 1889. The way of it is this. Up in our farming 
country towns, years ago and now, all the brightest and best 
boys and girls go off to the city and out West, where they can 
get kiunvlcdge and make money a great deal better than they 



72 

can here, and leave us poor sticks at home ; and what is father 
and mother to do ? They had before called in Pat and Bridget, 
from the land of the Celt, but we up there in Judea think we 
know a thing or two, and we called in Gustavus and Lena from 
the land of the Swedes. The Swedes brought the Bible with 
them and wanted to worship God in their own language. They 
had their minister come; they built a hall, or started to buiUl 
one; and we chipped in and helped them. They wanted to 
form a church. Well, Yankee ingenuity came in and we said, 
here, suppose you come and join our church, meet down in the 
hall and worship in your own language'; but you shall belong 
to our church and be a branch. Vei'y Avell, so on that Sab- 
bath there were over thirty that joined our church. Our arti- 
cles of faith and covenant were translated into Swedish and 
the Swedish minister read them to the communicants and the 
communion service was administered in both Swedish and 
English. Well, now, what Mas all this for? These Swedish 
children come to our church, come to our school. But this is 
only temporary, remember, and soon the clannish Swede will 
be supplanted with the millennial English. And when you 
sent us up into the hills, full of Yandee sagacity, of foresight 
and hindsight, we were looking ahead. Up in these New Eng-- 
land hills. Congregational churches are, many of them, re- 
duced so low they are not able to starve one man, but have to 
do it two together, to do it decently, to starve one minister ! 
AVe do not expect any such thing is going to arrive there. Our 
little baby is growing very fast. There is about fifty of her 
now. The last communion season there was about fifteen more 
of her admitted. You see the point. We have city j)eople 
there to be sure, but they come and go. Blessings on them 
while they stay! But then comes the cold Winter, — what are 
you gouig to do? We don't want to go into holes like wood- 
chucks and hibernate ; and as we get old and totter by the 
fireplace, in comes this buxom Swedish lass and makes things 
sweet, and, God bless her, she is a source of help and com- 
fort to us. This we call "the Judea patent process of pre- 
serving the churches." In three years more we shall be one 
hundred and fifty 3'ears old. Well, may I say one word or 



two? We have done sometliing up on thai okl hill. We have 
had some high old fights in the abolition times and temper- 
ance times, plenty of them; but we had good old "Stratford 
grit," and we always won in the end. We raised a school 
teacher there, who was a Gunn, and he shot new ideas into 
the system of education ; and he was one of the first to learn 
men how to train that animal, the crudest curiosity on God's 
earth, a boy, through what Hem-y Ward Beecher said was the 
"Hell gate" he had to pass through, twelve to sixteen years 
old. He who had set forward progress in that line of educa- 
tion lies buried on our hill. We say that a church and town 
are one in New England, and you cannot separate them, that 
is impossible. AVe sent our Senator Piatt who lived there 
until after his majority, and who worthily represents us in the 
halls of Congress — but I must not linger — only we wish you 
would come up and see us. If you will come up and make us 
a real good visit this Fall, some day, we will give you plenty 
of pumpkin pies and apple sauce ; and if you will bring your 
cap and stay over Sunday we will let you go down and see the 
baby. Well, I am delegated to give to you our Christian 
greeting, ovir heartiest Christian greeting and congratulations, 
and happy to find you in such a green old age. And we pray 
that you may live, not only through a green old age, but a 
thousand years, and not only a thousand years, but to the time 
when the apocalyptic angel sliall stand with one foot on sea 
and one on land and declare that time shall be no more. 

Mr. Ives. I am reminded by this that we ought perhaps to 
have included another church, that we could have put in the 
place of that blank panel, our Scandinavian Church in Bridge- 
port, and if there has been any oversight in this regard I will 
make free acknowledgment at this time. 

Is there any one present to represent the church in Rox- 
bury? No name has been given to us. I will take but a mo- 
ment to say, that during my first year in the Seminary I was 
sent up to Roxbury to preach. It was my first output from 
the Seminary. I took with me the only two sermons I owned, 
and I preached them and came home! 



74 



We will now listen to a response from the church in South 
Britain by Brother John Pierce. 

Eespoxse from the Church in South Britain, 

Mr. John Pierce. 

In behalf of the great-great-grandchildren of South Britain 
we are here to thank you for the courtesy and kindness 
extended to us. I might say South Britain is a little village 
situated in the extreme northwest corner of New Kaven county, 
bounded on the west by the ancient Pootatuck, or present 
Housatonic river. Our ancestors came from this neighborhood 
and the adjoining town of Milford, up the valley of the Hous- 
atonic, thence to the valley of the Pomperaug and Shepaug, 
into the town of Woodbury, and then returned southerly in 
this direction, forming the town of Southbury, and latterly the 
parish of South Britain, a portion of the town of Southbury. 
Our church, as you will see, was organized in the year 1763, 
splitting off from the church in Southbury, representing, that 
the high hills between were such an imi^ediment that it was 
difficult for them to attend that church. They petitioned the 
General Assembly for a site, and after some debate and oppo- 
sition they were organized into a church by themselves. The 
name of the place, as near as can be ascertained, was origi- 
nated in this way: South, lying south of AVoodbury; and 
Britain, because the inhabitants were loj^al subjects to the 
English Crown, a fact which caused them great inconvenience 
during the war of the Revolution. Perhaps it is not well to 
say this, but facts are facts. A portion of my ancestors came 
from this direction, the town of Wethersfield and Glaston- 
bury. Our early ancestors were most anxious to form a church. 
They were anxious to serve their Maker according to the best 
of their abilities. In order to show you the rigidness with 
which they wished God's commands to be obeyed, I will read 
to you a writ that has been in the possession of my family ever 
since its original draft, issued for Sabbath breaking: 

"To John Pierce, Esq., Justice of the Peace for Litchfield 
" County, comes David Pierce and Robert Edmonds, Grand 



" Jui\ymen for our Loid the King in said County, and by reason 
"of their office, oath, complaint and presentment make of and 
"against Stephen Squire, of Woodbur}', with County aforesaid, 
" for that he the said Stephen Squires did on the 9th of May, 
" A. D. 1773, being Sabbath or Lord's day, he the said Stephen 
" being in good health refused and neglected to attend on any 
" publick worship in any meeting or congregation in said Town 
" or elsewhere, but did wilfully Absent himself therefrom by 
" g^J^y staying at home Without any work of Necessity or 
" Mercy Obliging him thereto which is contrary to our statute 
" law of the Colony Entitled an act for the due observance and 
" keeping of the Sabbath or Lord's day, and to the bad Exam- 
"ple of his Majestie's good Subjects, and prays a writ of our 
"Lord, the King, may go forth against the said Stephen and 
" he be dealt with as the law directs. 

" Dated at Woodbury the 19th day of May, A. D. 1773. 
" David Pierce, Robert Edmond, 

" Grand Jury-Men." 

I have good evidence that the said Stephen Avas prosecuted 
as the law directed and punished for the offense. The idea 
seemed to be in those days that a church could be supported 
after the people had acquired a certain amount of wealth. 
The Society of South Britain represented to the General Court 
that they had a taxable property amounting to one thousand, 
tAvo hundred pounds; and the first minister, Jehu Miner, was 
awarded a settlement of two hundred pounds, and an annual 
salary of seventy pounds a year. This was a very nice thing 
for a young clergyman, who had possibly spent the larger 
part of his money in getting his education: and the idea of 
taxing the society fell with vis into innocuous desuetude about 
the year 1S30. About the year 1803, when a tax was laid upon 
the society contrary to the wishes of man}-, an old farmer 
turned out to the tax collector a large black bear which he 
had brought from Minnesinks, New York State, with his Bible ; 
the bear and Bible were sold at the post, and the money used 
to pay the society tax. That is a fact. 

The next minister after Jehu j\Iiner was Rev. IMatthew 



Td 



Cazier, a man of French extraction, of strong- Calvinistic prin- 
ciples. It was said, I don't know liow true it is, that he used to 
chastise his son ahiiost every day in the week for fear that he 
might disregard the text, " He that spares the rod will spoil 
the child." 

The next minister of eminence was the Rev. Bennett Tyler 
whom many of j'ou brethren will remember, who attained great 
eminence in his profession, one of the greatest theologians of 
the State in his day and time. Of the fourteen ministers who 
have oflficiated in our parish, I believe all have been men of 
God, and all have striven sincerely and earnestly to worship 
Him and lead their flocks according to the best of their ability. 




CHURCH DECOKATIONS. (LOOKING K. 



Mr. Ives. "We will now hear a resjDonse from the North 
Church of Woodbury, by the Rev. Mr. Wyckofif. 

Response from the North Church of Woodbury, 

Rev. J. L. R. Wyckoff. 

I BEPEESENT, SIR, the third generation of a race of ministers, 



77 



and I can remember, wlien a child in my motlier's home, many 
gatherings of ministers around the table, and I have a very 
distinct recollection of being compelled to Avait when the min- 
isters were visiting at our home ; and my chief anxiety was, 
when they were eating, whether anything would be left Avhen 
they got through, for you know those religious eaters. "We 
had the evidence of that to-day ; and I confess it w^as a matter 
of considerable anxiety to me, while sitting in the pew over 
there, whether or not there would be anything left when those 
who preceded me got through in the way of refreshment this 
afternoon. 

I see that I am not recognized here in this home, and it may 
be necessary for me to make a word of explanation. The 
thing to do here to-day is in some w'ay or another to connect 
yourself with Stratford. I have wondered how I could do it. 
My grandfather was a Presbyterian minister of the old school. 
My father was a Presbyterian minister of the new^ school. 
They left me on the fence. I jumped down between, and the 
good people of North Woodbury, seeing I was a stranger, took 
me in. They took me in, for when they had once received me, 
they administered to me this oath : N(.) man shall preach the 
gospel in this church except the man who preaches the pure 
doctrines of the gospel commonly known as Calvanistic, or as 
contained in the Shorter Catechism of the Westminster As- 
sembly. I said they took me in — with my consent, of course. 
I want to saj'' in regard to your grandchild to-day, the first 
thing and the most important thing in regard to her church 
life, she has held fast to the faith once delivered to the saints. 
It is the first time that I have ever been privileged to look 
into the face of Grandmother Stratford. I wonder, if she had 
the faith to deliver to-day, if she would deliver it as unalloyed, 
as in those days, — as pure and simple. The time came when 
the little swallow had to be crowded off the eaves, and she 
flew away and found herself a nest, a very pleasant one and 
commodious, capable of accommodating from five to seven 
hundred little nestlings. She has pushed on in the presence 
of misfortune until to-day she outnumbers on her list her 
mother, in the way of communicants ; and she has pushed up 



78 



until she reaches ahnost j^our own record of church member- 
ship, seventy-three j'ears of church life, seventy-three years of 
faithful witnessing to the truth and holding fast to the faith 
as it is Jesus. It is a pleasant thing for us to come back to-day, 
and make a report as to the Avay in which we have served the 
Master and held to the faith. It is a great thing to be j)ut into 
the line of spiritual descent, to have the hand of a pious ances- 
tor extended with benediction over one's life. Descent is 
important, but ascent is better. We thank God for what 1ms 
been transmitted to us, for the prayers that have been answered 
with respect to our church life, and for the sympathy that has 
been extended to us, although we have not seen your face for 
all these seventy-three years. It seems a little strange that 
Ave should come here to-day and protest our affection, when 
we have never as yet exchanged a visit ; but it seems equally 
strange that this our grandmother should be so ignorant with 
reference to our name. I presume there is not a member of 
my church who would recognize the name on that panel, not 
one, AVoodbury Second. It is North Woodbury, and, just as 
the brother has intimated, these inscriptions are all on the 
same level. We don't recognize either first or second. It is 
Woodbury South, or South Woodbury, and Woodbury North, 
or North Woodbury. The saints are one, as they have one 
faith, one Lord, one baptism. 

It will not do for me to trespass on this brother's jmtience. 
I heard him say over in the aisle, unless I misunderstood him, 
to Brother Hovey, "The man who exceeds five minutes will 
be imprisoned." I Avant to keep my liberty. I was born free, 
and I want to jireserve it. I will simply close by saying to 
you that all the saints in North Woodbury greet you, and re- 
quest me to salute you with a holy kiss ; and they unite with 
me in the most earnest and fervent prayer that God may bless 
you and keep you and cause his face to shine ujion you and 
be gracious unto you. 

Mb. Ives. We are now getting down toward the children 
of a younger growth, and the Rev. R. G. S. McNeille, will re- 
spond for the Second Church in Bridgeport. 



79 

Response from the Soutli Church in Biidgeport, 

Rev. K. G. S. NcNeille. 

Mr. Moderator and Brethren of the Stratford Church: 
'When Father Tom Burke, the Priest, was pleading in England 
the cause of Ireland, he laid great emphasis, in connection 
with his eloquent appeals, upon the fact that he himself was 
an Irishman. The next day the English Historian, Mr. Froude, 
in a public address, called Father Tom to account and said he 
ought not to boast of being an Irishman, because the name 
Burke was a Norman name. But Father Tom, upon a subse- 
quent occasion, said that Mr. Froude had claimed that Burke 
was a Norman name, and, said he, Mr. Froude is correct, 
although the name has rested upon the old sod for four hund- 
red years ; but, perhaps, Mr. Froude does not know that my 
mother was a Callihan, though every body knows that Calli- 
han is an Irish name, and that the boys take after their mother. 
As I have met here so pleasantly the representatives of these 
churches in these felicitously arranged exercises, I congratu- 
late you, first of all, that the descendants of this ancient and 
honored church follow the general rule and alike take after 
their mother. They are marked with the imprint of her face. 
They still hold, the very faith received through her at the 
first; not the faith of the Westminster Catechism, however 
excellent: not the faith of John Calvin, however profound; 
not the faith of John Wesley, however stimulating; these 
influences, fall into the second place, but the one faith of the 
Lord Jesus Christ, our Lord and our Redeemer, held under 
whatever system of doctrine and under whatever subordinate 
human name you please, the faith that makes our hearts glow 
and brings us into love and sympathy with his divine way of 
life, of glory and of salvation. 

Meanwhile, I do not forget to express a deep sympathy with 
the idea that has been so often averted to here, the value in 
church life of historical continuity, and I am glad noAV at length 
to attend a celebration of one of the original Puritan Churches, 
which commemorates in to-day's anniversary an appreciable 
portion of a millennial of history. And while it is true that 



80 



we who are Congregational claim, even from the earliest Church 
in Jerusalem, a continuity of principle in regard to faith and 
practice ; yet in these last days, it is felicitous for us to feel 
that here we are gaining in respect of that outward continviity, 
which is historically associated with common institutions long 
preserved and handed down. I feel now, at length, that our 
Congregationalism begins to assume the type of some of those 
great European cathedrals, dating back in the origin of their 
continuous growth and erection to earlier centuries, but added 
to in every succeeding century by the contributions of an ever 
fresh, an ever growing and an ever potent piety. I greet you, 
therefore, first of all from our church, because we have so 
much in common, we have our histories in common ; we have 
our Christian life from a common source and we have in com- 
mon the spirit which energizes a pure New Testament faith. 
I think that we of the Second Church in Bridgeport rejoice 
also that we may bring you greetings because of the perpe- 
tuity of the Union of those Churches — a union in organization, 
and in fellowship — which has arisen from these old centers of 
New England life and theology. I remember that on one 
occasion a youthful student in the Seminary spoke to the Rev. 
Dr. Bacon of the Congregational Churches as being a rope of 
sand. "Yes," said Dr. Bacon, ''you see the sand, I see the 
rope." And I have often thought that our Churches are as 
jewels prepared for a crown, separate in their integrity, in 
their beauty and in their individual value, but joined together 
as some of the royal jewels are often joined, by a filligree of 
gold almost invisiV>le, a true and golden bond so that the joints 
do not appear. I congratulate you, therefore, upon the unity 
of our Churches, a unity which, however slight it may seem, 
is sufticiently strong, as seen to-day, for sympathy and work 
during the two hundred and fifty years which are past and 
gone. 

I congratulate you, last of all, on the continued individuality 
of the Churches. I am glad to hear from such a one, as the 
brother who preceeded me, his staunch allegiance and the 
staunch allegiance of his Church to an ancient and noble creed. 
I am clad to hear from all of our Churches concerning that 



81 



whicb, while they are CoBgregational and united, makes them 
individual also in the freedom of their growth, in the activity 
of their life in the pursuit of a common pui'pose. Each Church 
values for itself differing forms of thought and we emphasize, 
somewhat varying theologies, but, nevertheless, individual in 
our freedom, we do no more than give, as it were a vaned 
expression to our invaluable and holy Christian faith. I ee 
that, in regard to our unity, we are to-day, as ever, one. I feel 
that in regard to our individuality we are to-day, as ever, many, 
in order that, if any one Church may be able to contribute or 
preserve any specially valuable thought or practice all the rest 
are at liberty to receive that contribution, and thankfully using 
it may at length make it common to us all. Just as m some 
cathedrals vou see the great rose-window which m the west 
of the church takes up and transmits the light of a perfect day, 
and when you look at it and look out through it you see the 
amber and the gold and the royal purple and the amethyst, 
'the shining blue, and the deep ruby,-all these colors perfect 
in their adjustment,-the perfect picture according to the 
artisfs mind, yet if you turn your back to that window and 
look toward the altar, you will find that through these many 
single pieces of stained glass, all of them of different colors, 
there comes from the whole window, upon the altar of God s 
house a pure white and combined light. So I congratulate 
you, that from this ancient church so many churches have 
arisen, individual in their planting, and individual in their free 
growth but that through them all, taken together, there still 
shines the white light of the Gospel of redeeming love And 
if there should fall upon some of the young men and upon 
some of the young women of this church that spirit of proph- 
ecy that was spoken of by an elder Prophet of by-gone days ; 
if it were given to any here in that spirit of prophecy to look 
ahead for two hundred and fifty years, I can express no better 
wish than that catching the light from the mountain top of 
Zion, across so many sunken and hidden valleys of the unre- 
vealed future, the spirit of prophecy might discern atar off, 
that when another quarter millennial shall have been com- 
pleted, and when history shall have swelled the stream of our 



82 



church life to twice its present magnitude and bulk, that even 
in that far off time, this ancient and Godly church may still 
be able to gather around her, her children and her children's 
children, consecrated to one faith, one Lord, one baptism of 
the Holy Ghost ; to a common penitence and a common hope 
of everlasting salvation. 




COLLECTION OF RELICS AT LECTURE ROOM. 



]\Ik. Ives. Dr. Hovey will now respond for the Park Street 
Church. Will the other gentlemen please come forward. 

Response from the Park Street Church, Bridgeport. 

Rev. H. C. Hovey, D.D. 

My Dear Brother : I received from you a postal card clos- 
ing with the touching Avords, '-Remember the Belle."' Thus 
the Pastor of this church speaks of the dear old grandmother. 
She is the belle whom we all love, beautiful as in the days of 
her youth. Far away on the banks of the Muscoka, north of 
the Georgian Bay last Sunday morning, I met with a group 
of Christian people to worship God, and one of them said to 



83 



me, you are going to have a celebration at Stratford, we un- 
derstand this coming week. Dear old Stratford! At New 
York, in one of the busiest offices on Broadway I met one of 
the busiest men of all in that great throbbing metropolis, and 
as we parted, after transacting a little business, he said, there 
is going to be a great celebration down at Stratford next 
Thursday. And so we hear from one and another of those 
who love your belle. Away off in Minneapolis, when a dear 
brother had expounded the Scriptures to us in such a manner 
as to make them luminous, and I asked him where he came 
from, he said he came from dear old Stratford. I am glad to 
see him here to-day, your former Sunday-School superinten- 
dent, Brother Plant. Thus we all are here with our tribute 
of love to the belle ; and perhaps after all, deciphering your 
hieroglyphics which I do with joy and pleasure, my brother, 
I may have misunderstood the matter, and it may be the young 
church of which I am the pastor that you wish me to speak 
of. Remember the Belle ! How could I forget that beautiful 
young church of only twenty years, strong, hthe, ruddy in her 
youth and beauty. May God bless her, your grandchild, the 
Park Street Church, with its four hundred and fifty members, 
its Sunday-School averaging four hundred, take the year 
around, its Society of Christian Endeavor so full of life and 
spirits, its Mother s Meeting so goodly and strong,— all its 
beautiful features, I trace back through its parents to its 
grandmother. I say its parents ; for we have not been able 
to decide yet whether we were born of the First Church or the 
Second Church, both claiming us, and we loving both and 
cherishing them dearly in our hearts. We know who our 
grandmother is ! 

But after all I am not sure about the postal card. There 
is no "e" at the end of the word belle, so it must be that you 
have reference to the bell that swings and summons to the 
house of worship ; and it may be that in your pride you spoke 
of that old bell that used to sound down in Sandy Hollow, 
when all around through Connecticut the Puritans were blow- 
ing their horns to come to the House of God, or were sound- 
ing their conch shells, or, as in East Haven, good old Deacon 



84 



Austin in his regimentals was marching up and down the hill 
beating his big base drum in order to gather men to the House 
of God. Then you, in those da^'s were swinging the first bell 
of goodly Connecticut. Yes, remember the bell, don't forget 
that. I saw the tongue of the bell, the iron tongue that 
cracked the old bell, not that bell, perhaps ; but some other 
bell, it is there in the hall of relics — I am not sure I am point- 
ing in the right direction, but you know what I mean — but I 
saw it. Oh how many times that bell has summoned men to 
worship God, how many times it has rebuked the profane 
Sabbath breaker ; how many times it has tolled the knell for 
those, who have passed away from earth to heaven. Yes, re- 
member the bell, and cherish it, for it is God's voice, it is the 
voice of God's bride sounding abroad through the land, rebuk- 
ing the careless, summoning the thoughtful, encouraging those 
who are ready to rei:»air to the House of God and to enter into 
his service gladly. Yes, there is one thing that we can boast 
of in the Park Street Church, and I don't know of any other 
church that can, we hear the ringing of this bell. Perhaps 
you can hear ours, as the bells peal on the Sabbath morning, 
calling men to the House of Prayer. Oh, I love the church 
going bell and I think of all the bells that have been set chim- 
ing and still chime to the glory of God. And that first old 
bell at Sandy Hollow, I say let us remember the bell. I don't 
know how big that bell was. We don't believe in very big 
bells in our Congregational churches. In the Cathedral at 
Montreal they have a bell that weighs 29,400 pounds. That 
is a monstrous bell, and over in China I have been told that 
the largest bell there is inscribed with 100,000 characters, and 
every one of those characters is a prayer, and when the bell 
is rung all those prayers are supposed to arise to Heaven. 
And now, my brethren and sisters in this old Stratford church, 
if we had over there at the Park Street Church a tower like 
the tower of Eiffel and we had swinging in this belfry such a 
bell as that in the Cathedral of Montreal, and if it were in- 
scribed with a hundred thousand or a million characters, and 
every one a prayer, when the bell rings those prayers should 
arise to God for you and your church. May God bless you. 



85 

Mu. Ives. We will now hear a response from J. J. Rose, 
Esq., for the Olivet Church. 

Response from the Olivet Church, Bridgeport, 

J. J. Rose, Esq. 

j\rR. Grandmother: It is not my intention to find a great 
deal of fault, but I do wish to say one thing in that direction. 
We grandchildren have had a delightful time here to-day. 
. We have had a jolly good time. We have enjoyed every min- 
ute of it. But we do not like to come here and be told we are 
going to hear five minute speaches, and then hear orations of 
lifteen minutes. We object to that, Mr. Grandmother, and 
therefore, to make up for it, I had made up my mind that I 
would dehver an oration of an hour and a half; finally I 
thought that I should inflict just as much suliering upon myself 
as upon the rest of the children ; so I have concluded to ask 
you that in our next two hundred and fiftieth re-union you 
will let us grandchildren speak first. I have no doubt though, 
in my heart, that you are to-day delighting in these richly 
dressed children of yours : but, you know, in family re-unions 
there are another kind of children, as well as the rich and dis- 
tinguished. We find in church re-unions and family re -unions 
rich relations and poor relations. I come here representing 
one of the poor relations. 

Mr. Grandmother, Olivet Church, your grandchild, learned 
for the first time, to my knowledge, when you sent the invita- 
tion, that she was a grandchild; so we held a jollification 
meetino- at once. AVe threw up our hats to think that we 
were of such a distinguished line of ancestry ; and I began to 
look back in memory upon our church record during our ex- 
istance of twenty years, and I called to mind that little gather- 
ing of people who met in an upper room over a grocery store ; 
and I remembered how that little church grew and struggled. 
I called to mind the difficulties under which it labored, how 
through a decade and a half, it could scarcely be said to stand 
on its feet ; in fact, I really think we are " creeping " yet : still, 
although, during the first fifteen years we struggled along, I 
am happy to say that, during the last five years, under one of 



86 



the best of leaders, we have been brought by our Master into 
green pastures ; and, by contrast, we are in luxury, where be- 
fore we were in Avant. And, sir, as I have thought of our ex- 
periences, my mind went back to that little band which, over 
two hundred and fifty years ago, — I believe in 1608, — started 
out from that little English village of Scrooby and went up 
to the historic town of Leyden, and, not finding that large 
liberty of conscience which they sought, decided that they 
would come over to these New England shores; here they 
found what they desired ; at least, if they did not find that 
complete freedom to the extent that they wished, we have 
found it to-day, and richly enjoyed the same. And I call to 
mind how that little band separated in Massachusetts, and 
sent down here into the State of Connecticut those little col- 
onies such as Stratford and Milf ord and Guilford ; and I re- 
membered, as I read over their history, how that band here 
fought and contended with the Indians; suftered internal 
strife, in the same way the little Olivet Church has done, hav- 
ing dissensions, to the extent of sending off a feeble branch 
to found another church ; though in our case the dissentors 
had a little more independence of character ; (the portion that 
withdrew, instead of founding a similar church, were so inde- 
pendent that they founded a Methodist Church ;) and, as I 
contrasted these two churches I said to myself, certainly, if 
out of so small a beginning, if out of so weak a church in 
numbers and influence, our mother church became so power- 
ful, and has sent forth into this world heroic characters that 
are to-day building up both character for themselves and for 
the community; if this mother church of ours has become 
such a power in the world, and accomplished so much good, 
sir, your grandchild, weak as she is to-day, has a future be- 
fore her, and we propose to fight along this line, and we pro- 
pose to build up in that community where your grandchild 
exists, a God fearing and a God loving community. And, sir, 
when the roll shall be called two hundred and fifty years hence, 
I have no doubt that Olivet Church will be considered a worthy 
ancestor, as the blessed mother-church is to-day, and we per- 
haps may share in the celebration which shall be as blessed a 
re-union as this is to-day. 



87 

Mr. Ives. We have a baby, too, a few years old. We have 
reached the end of the list of the children, and now we are to 
hear from the baby. While this sword has been held over all 
the other speakers, I am delighted to say now to the baby, 
that she shall have full sway, and talk just as long as she 
wishes. 

Response from the West End Church, Bridgeport, 

Deacon J. W. Northrop. 

I remember that one of the previous speakers prayed that 
God would have mercy upon the listeners. 

In the name of the youngest grandchild, in the name of the 
West End Congregational Church of Bridgeport, I present to 
our dear venerable grandmother most hearty and afifectionate 
greeting. We are the infant of the family, and we look for 
that special, loving attention, that always clusters about the 
baby. I have said we are the infant : for while our dear grand- 
mother closes the wonderful cycle of two and a half centuries, 
we have fulfilled but two and a half j-ears. And though an 
infant of so short a life, still it is no puny weakling, but a 
healthy, strapping, lusty child, fast striving toward maturity. 
The West End Congregational Church was recognized by a 
Council convened February 15, 1887. I have the honor to be 
one of the twenty-one original members of the church. Since 
that time we have added to our number sixty-three, and have 
lost six, having now a membership of seventy-eight, so that 
during the two and a half years we have quadrupled our num- 
bers. If we continue to grow at this rate, for the two hundred 
and fifty years of our grandmother's life, we shall have a mem- 
bership of — Well, I will not attempt to tell you how many. I 
began to figure it, and reached a million before I was fairly 
started, and I saw there was no use in figuring an}' farther, 
for Avhat could we do with more than a million members? 
When we get up to a million there will be a little great-grand- 
daughter born to our. beloved grandmother; perhaps it will 
be a twin! But while we cannot truthfully say we expect to 
grow at this rate, we do look forward to a large increase in 
the future, for we are located at the West End ; and the long 



88 



headed, wise fellows say that from the very nature of things, 
the City of Bridgeport is bound to exj^iand at the "West End. 
And while a great many of those long headed fellows are real 
estate agents, they are not all real estate agents, so we put 
our confidence in what they say. The original enterprise from 
which the church sprang was a little Sunday-School mission 
work started by some good people in an unoccupied store. 
From the store we soon grew into a cottage where our fifty 
or sixty scholars were scattered through five rooms. Pupils 
sat on the stairs, others dangled their legs from the sink- 
board. From the cottage Ave grew into our joresent chapel- 
home with -^'hicli our good mothei-, the First Church of Bridge- 
port so charitablj' clothed us. You must know that strapping 
infants are forever outgrowing theii' clothes. Last year's 
dresses won't button this year ; the arms stick far out through 
the sleeves; the skirts cause us to smile at their shortness 
That is the trouble with this child, we can't keep inside of our 
clothes. Twice we have outgrown our garments, and now, 
the third time, we are in a ridiculous plight, pulling in our 
arms and drawing up our feet and afraid to take a long breath 
for fear of ripping a seam or bursting off a button! But we 
are not an indifferent youngster who had no regard for the 
fitness of things, and we propose to do something about it, 
and we propose to do a great deal about it. One feeble-kneed 
brother advocated ripping out the hems and patching down 
the old garments and trying to make them do. I am putting 
it very mildly Avhen I say that that young man was simply 
squelched. No, my good friends, we have got to have another 
brand new set of clothes; and our hearts are already rejoicing 
in anticipation. We do not propose to cultivate our clothes at 
the expense of our souls and minds or even of our pockets, but 
we do realize the relative importance of pretty good clothes, 
at any rate, you feel tolerably comfortable inside of them. We 
have all taken measures in this direction, and, as everj^body 
knows, taking measures is the first thing to do when you are 
to have a new set of clothes. 

I have seen this Sunday-School work grow in numbers from 
twenty-five to two hundred, and now in truth we are in need 



89 



of more commodious quarters in order to successfully carrj^ 
on our work; but we trust that, before a very long time, we 
shall be in possession of a church building of ample size and 
accommodations to meet the needs of our enlarg-ed work. 
God has indeed blessed us in the past. He has blessed us 
with this worthy grandmother, whose true piety and faith 
have without doubt had a benign influence over us. He has 
blessed us with a wise, affectionate mother, whose loving care 
has been around about us in the past, and who still cherishes 
us in a very tender place in her heart. Better than all. He 
has blessed us with His own divine presence. We have felt 
the influence, the joy of His overshadowing love, the power 
and grace of His good Spirit in our midst. And now, in clos- 
ing, we pray that the God, who planted and has sustained 
throughout these centuries this dear grandmother church, Avill 
evermore bestow upon her His richest gifts ; that throughout 
the coming generations she may continue a bright and shin- 
ing light shedding abroad a clear radiance over the paths of 
multitudes of men ; a fountain of the water of life from whence 
shall flow forth the streams that carry peace and joy and sal- 
vation to the hearts of the people. 

Mr. Ives. Let us close our services this afternoon by sing- 
ing the 1141st Hj'mn. I desire to give two notices before 
singing the hymn. In the first place, of the relics which are 
upon exhibition in the lecture room at the rear of this house. 
The room will be open at the close of this service. The ladies 
have made ample provisions for a supper for all who can re- 
main and be with us in the evening or for those who would 
take supper before returning to their homes. The supper 
will be served in the hall where the dinner was served, and 
the train is in no haste. You will be welcome at any time 
after half-past five. After singing, Mr. Davenport will pro- 
nounce the benediction, whom we are very glad to have with 
us to-day. 

Hymn 1141. "Jesus shall reign where'er the sun." 



90 

BENEDICTION. 

Rev. J. G. Davenport. 

And now may the blessing that maketh rich and addeth no 
sorrow, the blessing- of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy 
Ghost, be upon us and upon all his Israel forevermore. Amen. 




Ccttgrcgatimiai C^rr^. S t pa t f o rd . C o n n , 

\;ui'. .n\T6i_ removtd awl uev/Churcrt J.JiU ii'.lls59. 



EVENING SERVICE 



Mr. Ives. Rev. Mr. Pardee, Rector of the Episcopal Church 
of this place, will now read the Scriptures. - 

Mr. Pardee. I will read the 55th Chapter of the Book of 
the Prophet Isaiah. 

Mr. Ives. We W'ill be led in prayer by my father, who 
preached in the building which preceded this one tifty-three 
years ago, and I have been happy to have him preach for me 
three times since I have been the pastor of this church. 



PRAYER, 

Rev. Alfred E. Ives, of Castine, Maine. 

O Lord our God, we bow and worship before Thy face. We 
call upon our souls and all within us to praise and bless Thy 
holy name. Thou art faithful as the great mountains, that 
cannot be removed but endure forever. We rejoice iu the 
manifestations of that faithfulness, in Thy dealings with Thy 
people here. We bless Thy name for this da}-, for this com- 
inemoration, that there is so much to commemorate, so nuich 
to recount with thankfulness and with joy. We praise and 
bless Thy holy name that in Thy providence and by Thy good 
spirit in years and generations gone the foundations of many 
generations here were laid in faith, in humble pra3-er. We 
rejoice that Thy watchfulness has been over this vine of Thy 
l^lanting, that Thou hast caused it to bud and bring forth 
fruit so abundantly, extending its boughs to the sea and its 
branches to the river, that it has been like a bough, even a 
fruitful bough by a wall, whose branches ran over the wall. 
We rejoice that there have gone forth from this church other 
churches of Our Lord Jesus Christ, standing firm in the truth 



94 



and love of God, blessed richly in the grace of God with en- 
largement and upbuilding and strength. We thank Thee for 
all Thou has done for this mother church and for those that 
have gone forth from her. We rejoice in Thy goodness and 
mercy to them, these churches of Jesus Christ, so much in 
them that manifest the faithfulness and love and power and 
grace of God. The Lord in His favor grant that, as in gene- 
rations past, so in time to come, and more abundantly, the 
riches and grace of God may come to His people here, upon 
this church of God, upon all its membership, and upon all 
who are so closely related to it by that intimacy with it in the 
past. We i^ray that more and more Thou wilt work for Zion, 
that it may be every where made manifest that those who 
name the name of God are indeed a peculiar people, zealous 
of good works, the Lord Jesus dwelling with them in their 
hearts and in their habitations. We pray. Our Father, that 
in coming years there may still be enlargement from these 
churches, and that all these churches around about us and far 
away over this wide land may bear the name of Christ, and 
the riches of His grace be manifest in their enlargement. We 
thank Thee for all Thou has done for our laud, and pray that 
more and more Thou wilt work until this land and all the 
lands shall be filled with the fullness and the grace of God. 
We commend Zion and her interests to Thee. Still thou dost 
work in the midst of the golden candlesticks. Still dost Thou 
carry the stars in Thy right hand, and with confidence we may 
commend our interests to Thee, and pray for Thy great name's 
sake Thou wilt work good unto them. Bless us in the remain- 
ing services of this evening, that they may be pi'ofitable to us 
and enjoyable to us and prove to Thy honor and glory, through 
Jesus Christ, our Redeemer. Amen. 



Mr. Ives. It may. perhaps be a relief to some if I give no- 
tice that the train for New Haven leaves at 9.21, and the train 
for Bridgeport at 9.26. We shall probalily be through these 
exercises in abundant season for either of these trains, but if 



95 



the services should be prolonged I will give notice, so that 
any who desire to take these trains may be amply notified. 

Mr. Ives. I am very happy to announce an address from 
Dr. Hall, a former pastor of this church. 

ADDRESS. 

Rev. Willi.\m K. Hall, D.D. 

Mr. Moderator, Fathers and Brethren: I deem it a great 
privilege to be present with you to-day, and participate in this 
joyous festival, on this high day in the history of this ancient 
church. Though my pastorate was not a long one, it was suf- 
ficiently long for me to become thoroughly identified with the 
interests of this church, and to become intimately acquainted 
with many of you in your homes. It does not require a long 
time for a pastor to know his people by their firesides, to find 
his affections twining about many a home, forming the ten- 
derest attachments with many hearts. Returning to-day after 
the lapse of eighteen j^ears, a flood of memories has been 
sweeping through my mind, as I have met one and another 
and grasj^ed the hand of those to whom I Avas so closely drawn 
years ago. I have been dwelling very much in the past. 

But this is not the place or the hour for the utterance of 
thoughts which are for the most part of a private nature. 

Our ears have become familiar with "Centennial"' and "Bi- 
centennial," and no longer do we deserve the sneer that we 
have often heard from the other side of the sea, that we have 
no history, no monumental stones, that our life was young and 
callow. We are passing beyond that condition. We have 
been rapidly pushing on into events that have so crowded and 
crowned these years as to have made them some of the most 
important and conspicuous years, as far as the great interests 
of humanity are concerned, in all the world's history. I sup- 
pose that we may be apt to err in magnifying the relative 
value of the years immediately behind us as compared with 
the earlier centuries; and yet I think that, after the soberest 
reflection, one would conclude that the two hundred and fifty 
years, which span the life of this church, cannot be nuu-h siu'- 



96 



passed in importance and conspicuousness, as regards the 
great vital interests of humanity, by any of the jears or cen- 
turies that may yet come before the curtain drops and the 
great drama of history is closed. Already Ave are talking 
about the celebration of the Four Hundredth Anniversary of 
the discovery of America; but during the lirst hundred years 
and more of this period there was. a comparative barrenness 
respecting any great important events that have a far out- 
reaching influence upon the highest welfare of humanity. It 
is not until that period when the Pilgrims landed on the shores 
of Plymouth, one of the great epochs of history, and when the 
colonists laid these foundations of church and State along the 
shores of Connecticut, that we begin to strike the history that 
seems to be mighty in its every event, reaching far out down 
to the present and far on into the future. And so, when we 
review the history of this ancient church, looking backward two 
hundred and fifty years; when we come to j'ou, dear brethren, 
as you stop in this grand, lordly march through the centuries 
halting for a little while to look back over the way by which 
you have come, we can feel with you that the fathers began 
their work at a period in the history of this world which in 
all probability will not be surpassed in all the years and cen- 
turies that are before us, for the gravity of the nature of the 
events in which they were the actors, and for the profound sig- 
nificance of the issues proceeding from them. It is a fact of 
great suggestive value, as it seems to me, that while we are 
celebrating our centennials and bi-centennials of civil govern- 
ment and civil institutions, there are simultaneously these 
church centennials. While we lift up our thanks to God for 
the government under which we have reached such great 
prosperity; for the civil and religious freedom that is our 
Cflorious inheritance from the fathers, we do not fail to come 
and bow lovingly and reverently at these holy shrines, at these 
church altars our fathers reared. We do not fail, I say: aye, 
we nuist do it if we are true to history. There is thus brought 
prominently before our minds the significant fact that coeval 
with the foundation of civil government were the foundations 
of these churches of Christ. This is a fact brought with great 



97 



power by these commemorative celebrations upon the minds 
of the youth of this generation, even as it comes with great 
and refreshing power upon the minds of those in middle life 
and those who are passing away. And we are reminded by it 
that the source of this national prosperity, the primal cause 
of this blessedness that is ours under these civil institutions, 
must ever be inseparably linked with the House of God. 

My friends, the question perhaps may come to some prac- 
tical mind, of what utility are such church anniversaries as 
this which we are enjoying to-day? Of what value can they 
be to us or to our children ? Is it not merely a passing senti- 
ment, pleasing, it may be, for the hour, but leaving no abiding 
product of good behind it '? Homer tells us that Diomede did 
not see the gods until Pallas Athene swept the mist from be- 
fore his eyes. It is by the power of reminiscences such as 
these we have had to-day, that the mists are blown away from 
before our eyes. We look back along the path of this church 
history and see the consecrations to God, the fidelities to his 
service and the hallowed and hallowing genius and the pro- 
found religious spirit of the men who wrought for us in the 
years gone by. It is only by the power of just such memories 
as these levived to-day that we properly estimate the worth 
of those who laid the foundations of the goodly structure into 
which we have entered, and which has been and is our pride 
and our joy. Of what value to us? Value in the inspiration 
and impulse we receive for the re-consecrating of ourselves to 
a like service, of the quickening of our own faith in God, and 
in the building up in ourselves of a like moral strength, and 
a like righteous character. There was once a time when the 
Moabite soldiers prevented a burial, and they hastily cast the 
body into the sepulchre of Elisha; and the sacred writer tells 
us that when the body touched the old bones of Elisha it re- 
vived and stood upon its feet. It is by the touch that we 
have had to-day of this revered past of this history of God's 
Providence in this church, of that grace He gave to the fathers, 
that we ourselves are revived and anointed anew for the work 
that God has for us to do. 

I have noted in the addresses that have been made to-day 



98 



that very little lias been said of the talents, of the learning, of 
the great abilities of those who occupied in the earlier years 
the pulpit of this and of other chnrches that have sprung from 
it. Among them were great preachers, men of much learning, 
men foremost in intellectual strength and attainment of the 
time, but these points have not been emphasized to-day. 
Prominent in your thoughts and in the thoughts of those who 
have spoken to us, has been the spirit that possessed them, 
the faith that animated them, the consecration to God and 
His service that characterized their lives. There is helpful- 
ness in this fact for us. For we, by the power of these mem- 
ories thus revived, are greatly aided to see, that effective work 
for God, the fulfilling of our mission in the world, after all 
depend upon a right heart, upon a true spirit, upon consecra- 
tion to God and His service. As we look back over the his- 
tory of this church we are impressed with what numberless 
sacritices and numberless fidelities must have marked those 
who have been prominent through all the years from the begin- 
ning of this church life. There is something rather wonder- 
ful, and yet very intelligible, Mr. Moderator, in this fact of a 
continued spiritual life, a fidelity of godliness for two hundred 
and fifty years. "Whence came it ? How has it been sustaind '? 
Two hundred and fifty years of unbroken, continuous, indes- 
tructible holy life, a life of faith in Christ, a life of love for 
him, a life of fidelity to the Ci'oss of Jesus! Hoav shall we 
explain it except by the indwelling Spirit of God in human 
hearts, the Divine Spirit, touching this human life and that 
human life, lighting a flame here on this heart and there on 
that heart, and the flame ever burning brightly, the life once 
given continually sustained, through all these years. This 
truth was forced afresh upon my mind this morning, as obe- 
dient to the promptings of my heart, I visited yonder burying- 
ground and stood before the monument of one whom I had 
laid there to rest. I stood and pondered, and remembered, 
and prayed. I have but to mention the name of Deacon D. 
P. Judson, for all of you who Avere his contemporaries at once 
know that I speak the name of one who, if we could have 
looked into his heart, would, next to the name of wife and child- 



I 



99 



ren, have written the name of this church of Christ. I re- 
member him as one who was of unspeakable comfort and 
strength to me in the days of my pastorate of this church. I 
remember him as one who bore on his heart of hearts every 
interest of this church, and whose unselfish devotion to its 
welfare was recognized by all. I make this reference merely 
for the sake of an illustration. That that one life was but one 
of many with which this church through all the years has been 
blessed. Each generation in turn has had many who, in stead- 
fast faith, with- believing prayer and unwearied labor have 
ministered at this altar. Here we have the explanation of the 
fact of this unbroken church life for two hundred and fifty 
years in this community. It has been and is the "Church of 
the living God.'' Brethren there are great souls behind us. 

We, of to-day, who have entered into the privileges and 
blessings they have bequeathed to us; we who have the en- 
joyment of the successes and victories they have gained for 
us, have not begun to measure their heroism of thought, of 
feeling and of action ; their numberless sacrifices ; their num- 
berless fidelities. If we are to be worthy of them we must 
gird the loins of our mind and be sober and earnest, and faith- 
ful to the end. 

Not only has this continuity of church life in its inner spirit 
and power been strongly impressed upon me to-day. There 
is another; and it is that of the presentation of the faith 
once delivered to the saints, — loyalty to the standards of 
truth and to the forms and ordinances of the gospel. I 
would not have any of you infer that I believe that our fathers 
of two hundred and fifty years ago did the thinking for us of 
to-day. I would not have you suppose that I am so bigoted 
as to feel that we can make no improvement in the termin- 
ology of our religious creed. I would not have you for a 
■moment think that I am so wedded to uninsj)ired words, to 
mere forms and statements of truth that men have made, as to 
think that the expressions and vttterances of one Christian 
age are sufficient for all time. But Ave may count as certain- 
ties to-day many things which our fathers would have regarded 
as wild dreams, while we may have wider and broader vistas 



100 



of truth than they had. While the streams of truth have been 
growing wider and wider, and our bark may have been driven 
into broader and deeper harbors of knowledge, yet, still, let 
us remember to cultivate the spirit of reverence for the past, 
for only as we have reverence for the past can we have any 
hope for the future. While we have reverence for the past, 
let us be deei^ly humble as to what we ourselves have gained 
or may gain. Let us rememl)er that though the paths we are 
treading may lead us into broader fields and open out into 
wider and more attractive vistas, that these paths are those 
the fathers marked out for us. We did not mark them out 
for ourselves. So, with profound gratitude for their work 
along all the lines of religious and theological life, of social 
life, of intellectual life, let us, in our rejoicings to da}', con- 
gratulate oiu'selves that such a noble lineage is ours. Let 
our congratulations be in a spirit that I can no better express 
to you than in the simple words of the familiar heart-touching 
hymn, "More love, O Christ, to Thee, more love to Thee." 
Let us lift up on high, as ours, the motto of the early Eedemi?- 
tionis-t Fathers, "All for Thee, dear Christ, All for Thee."' 
And may the blessing of the God of the fathers, that rested 
upon the fathers, rest upon then- children to the remotest 
fifenerations. 



We shall now have the pleasure of listening to a former 
pastor of this church. Rev. Mr. Fitch. 

DENOMINATIONAL ESPEIT DE COEPS. 

Eev. Frank S. Fitch. 

Why is Protestant Christendom divided into so many sects? 
The Church of Eome answers confidently because of the great 
apostacy from the true church. Human reason was enthroned 
in the place of the authority of the apostles and their succes- 
sors, and disintegration is the natural and necessary result. 
Behold the evils of dissent, say the State or established 
churches such as the Church of England. 

A partial explanation is found in the fact that there were 



101 



various degrees of reformatian in different localities. The 
movement throughout Western Europe ^vas a g-eneral one, Lu 
modified in some degree at each separate center. A could 
aoree that salvation is by faith and not by works and that he 
Scriptures then.selves a.ul not the Pope or the church are the 
court of final decision, but the accepted doctrme of the right 
of final interpretation of God's word opened the way for dif- 
ferences of opinion in reference to the true significance of the 
Lord's Supper, the mode of baptism, the relation o church to 
state and the seat of ecclesiastical authority, and hence ^^;e 
find ourselves in this year of our Lord, 1883, strangely divided. 
It is not hard to account for these existing differences ^\e 
know why they have been and are: our chief interest is m 
their future mutations. Is denominational spirit diminishing 
Are the fences between the different estates o our Protestant 
churches bemg losvered from time to time, with a speedy pros- 
pect of final removal, as popular speech in our umon conven- 
iens so often and confidently asserts? The ease and willing- 
ness with which pastors change from the care of churches of 
one polity to those of another, and the mdividual member 
find a new Christian fellowship, according to considerations o 
personal convenience or business and social interests would 
seem to answer — Yes. 

There is, confessedly, a good deal of politeness. Ouv re- 
ligious assemblies weleome fraternal delegates ,v.tb great eor- 
drality and abundant applause xvben tbey assure us that the 
lints of agreement between our different denominations a e 
ma ■ and important «hile our difterenees are few and neariy 
obsolete. Sermons whose substanee is an attack upon the 
Sal a ross the way are far less common or welcome than fif y 
"\,s a-o. The greater intelligence, wider observa ion and 
more Idndly spirit of both our clergy and laity is noticeable ; 
"t we muslnot forget that there are always counter currents 
The Gulf Stream may flow continuously in one direction, but 
thlre is no massing-ot waters on the coasts of Britain or lack 
the Gnlf of Mexico. From one point ot observation it may 
seem that denominational spirit moves only in warm currents 
vHh summer and harvest in its train, while from another the 



102 



cliill of party spirit and the shock of unholy competition tirst 
urrest attention. These icebergs from a clime where our 
Lord's kingdom has not been established tioat far into the 
blessed region of home and foreign missionary activity and 
sink many a gospel ship and drown many a brave and self- 
sacriticing servant of the Master. 

Denominational schools and colleges are nmltiplying on 
every hand. Each considerable branch of the Protestant 
church has its educational, church erection, home and foreign 
missionary societies, and now great book concerns are provid- 
ing Sunday-School papers, lesson leaves, weekly religious 
papers, monthly and quai'tely magazines. 

Even the great national societies, whose accomplished work 
is second to none other in our century, in which the churches 
of our order have had such honorable place, the American 
Board, the American Home ^Missionary Society, the American 
^lissionary Association, are now, in fact, denominational soci- 
eties. Whose fault is it — oiu's? No I We desired coopera- 
tion, worked for cooperation, have given money, men and 
churches in our effort to secure cooperation. Our sincerity 
cannot be questioned. Is this a record of partial failure '? No ! 
but an honorable and permanent testimony. If we bear hence- 
forth a denominational name, work by denominational methods, 
and have need of cultivating more denominational spirit, it is 
because our younger brothers and children have set up house- 
keeping for themselves and left us alone with our inheritance 
of national societies and colleges to maintain as best we may. 
Many of us do not regard the denominational life of Protes- 
tant Christendom, as now manifested, as the ideal or ultimate 
form of the visible church of Christ. It is too narrow and ex- 
act in doctrinal statement and too confident in ecclesiastical 
polity. Each branch is positive as to its own teachings and 
method. It seems to rest all. in time Protestant fashion, on 
the Scriptures; but Independents, Presbyterians, Methodists 
f.nd Episcopalians cannot all and at the same time be abso- 
hittly apostolical and scriptural. Yet they seem to think so. 
They say so. I cannot believe that the unhealthf ul and unchris- 
tian spii"it manifested but too often in the past in our home mis- 



108 



siouary work is necessai-y or needs any increase. Such are 
some of the evils of denominationalism. yet great as they are 
and niuch to be deplored, they are less than those of enforced 
conformity as our fathers knew and deplored them in England. 
They are incident to times of experiment and transition, and 
are already attracting attention. The long talked of and not 
much practiced comity between denominations in home mis- 
sionary work, is beginning to be employed, not very generally, 
nor with remarkable enthusiasm, yet like Civil Service Reform 
and other things too good for half sanctitied society, it is be- 
ing demanded by the best thought and piety of the time, and 
the people will not rest until the work of Christ is done in his 
spirit and by methods which need no apology. 

The rapid enlargement of our cities in the older States, the 
new empii'es opening for conquest and development in the 
New "West and Southwest, and the open doors of the whole 
heathen world, invite men and societies to a nobler work than 
serving disatYected minorities or building churches for uneasy 
individuals who have pet theories which they wish to test 
chiefly by means of the toil and ^/i/t/^ of ot/ura. 

"What is the duty of Congregationalists at this time.' Are 
we to yield the field forever, as our fathers did in hundreds 
of instances in the Empire State in times past, to our more 
confident and less scrupulous rivals through fear of showing 
a sectaiian spirit: or ai"e we to enter the lists of the denomi- 
national race for supremacy in this country and become the 
most boastful and saucy of the whole ignoble company? 

I do not see any need of doing either. A healthful and 
honorable competition is better than an unchecked and irre- 
sponsible monopoly, whether we are engaged in carrying 
breadstufis from Minneapolis to Liverpool, or transporting 
citizens from Connecticut to the New Jerusalem. There are 
now no "licensed carriers." The route which is shortest, 
cheapest, makes the best time and delivers its merchandise in 
the best condition will be the "poeple's line." The highest 
practical utility is the test. The great public is an interested 
and intelligent observer in this time of construction and com- 
petition. Should we have more denominational spirit ? Can 



104 



we hope to compete with rival and parallel trunk lines as a 
great continental agency? We say conlidentl}-, yes. Our line 
is the most direct, and least expensive, our machinery strong 
and simple, our stock has never been watered — try us. 

The creed maker is abroad. For some time he has been 
without occupation. In common with manufacturer, projec- 
tor of railroads and merchant marine, he has been under a 
cloud. 

There has been no demand for his wares nor reverence for 
his person. So long as the fundamentals of church and state 
were questioned, and the very foundations of existing institu- 
tions were trembling, the defender of the faith like the resi- 
dent of regions frequented by earthquakes has been content 
to dwell in a one-story house with very broad base, with a half 
preference to live wholly out of door^ He could not be 
threatened or cajoled into an admission that he believed any- 
thing in particular or bad great attachment for the posses- 
sions of his fathers. But now how different. The maker of 
creeds in common with many others is thoroughly convales- 
cent. His discouragement has vanished. His occupation, in 
his own judgment at least, is no mean one, and he is making 
active preparation for spring trade. From basement to loft 
all the wares of the port are being brought forth, remnants, 
unsaleable fabrics, dust-covered and faded patterns with here 
and there a novelty, are spread before the thronging crowd 
of purchasers with all the eagerness of an Israelite tradesman. 
All the creeds from the so-called Apostles' down to that of the 
National Council's Committee of Twenty-five are on exhibition. 
It is not strange that such a fascinating occupation as creed- 
making should have an early revival. It is just as delightful 
to make ecclesiastical raiment for the use of others as to pro- 
vide gowns for the queen of fashion. Now I am not ambitious 
to make a creed out of new cloth, but as suggestions are in- 
vited I wish somewhere between the Apostles' Creed and to- 
morrow's to insert this single phrase — "I believe in the local 
church.'' 

I believe in the local church. I believe that it has a Scrip- 
tural basis ; although I do not insist that other ecclesiastical 



105 



systems have not. For one, I am willing to admit that I do 
not find any one of the great branches of the Chnrch catholic, 
Congregational. Presbyterian, Methodist Episcopal, Protestant 
Episcopal, Greek, or Roman Catholic, fully equipped in doc- 
trine, discipline, and activities in its exact present form in the 
New Testament. All doubtless have their proof-texts, and 
with greater or less admixture of human opinion and error 
have developed their systems from the germs contained in 
Revelation. All I claim is that we rest our theory of the local 
church as complete in itself on Avhat is written. To the law 
and the testimony is our friendly challenge. I regard our 
theory of the local church, as seen in our Congregational sis- 
terhood, as a valuable working hypothesis. I am confident 
that the more severely accurate exegesis of the future, and the 
careful comparative study of the relative excellence of the 
many outward expressions of Christianity in church life to 
which, whether they consent or not, all systems are being sub- 
jected, will require of us as few changes as of any other, and 
we have no such superstitious reverence for the mere words 
or methods of the Fathers, Reformer or Separatist, Puritan 
or Pilgrim, as to be unwilling to make any modifications, 
which may be proven to be required by God's word. I believe 
that our churches are true churches of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
We have tried, whether with entire fidelity or not, we may not 
judge, to reproduce the New Testament churches. I believe 
in our local self-governed churches because of their quicken- 
ing influence in secular life 

They have cultivated no monastic spirit nor sought escape 
from the burden of affairs. 

They have been in spirit and in fact in the world but not 
of it. 

Burke, in the House of Commons, says Dr. Dexter, once 
remarked: "Their Avay (l. e., the Colonists') of jn-ofessing re- 
ligion accounts for their fierce love of liberty." 

The town meeting and the local church have been the 
schools of an intelligent patriotism and a thoughtful piety. 
That each community, however small, must have the care of 
many of the great interests of men, in matters both temporal 



106 . 

and spiritual, busying itself continually with facts, theories, 
hindrances and measures, is vital to the purity and perma- 
nence of our institutions. 

These deliberations may be often unbusiness-like and petty 
in comparison with the legislation of parliaments and the find- 
ings of councils, but we must not forget that our growing 
numbers and widening domain increase the tension upon each 
individual community, and make new demands for personal 
intelligence and honor. These come from study, observation 
and responsibility. Mere assent and conformity never have 
nurtured men. Personal interest, personal care, personal 
honor, constant search for truth and unselfish loj'alty to it 
when discovered must not pass away in the land of the Pil- 
grims. 

I believe in the local church because of its adaptation to the 
Avork of the future. It is flexible, vises generals to meet par- 
ticulars, willingly allows time, the remorseless pruner, to cut 
away much of last year's woody structure now that its frviit 
has been garnered, that it may be able to bring forth more 
abundantly. It remembers that only the new wood buds, 
blossoms, and bears fruit. The old may serve as supports, as 
anchorages to the past. The leaves, in closest contact with 
air and sunlight, most sensitive and eager, must eat, digest, 
assimilate, and even envelop the venerable part with one layer 
more to increase its bulk, its weight and its value. This new 
layer must be itself all the time the most thoroughly alive 
part of the tree, serving as pipes for the sap-currents, as levers 
to open the clinging bark, that a large life may be possible ; 
and if now and then a portion be sloughed off it is no matter. 

The youth of the future will not break with the Bible. 
Nothing has been found to take its place. They will not den}^ 
Christ. There is none other name whereby we must be saved. 
They Avill not cease to use the winnowed grain of other days, 
but they have no use nor taste for husks. 

A revised edition of the English Bible, more Biblical state- 
ments of Christian dogma, more manuals of Christian songs, 
enlarged methods of Christian service, a better understanding 
among Christians as to practical philanthropy, more of comity 



107 



between the Protestant denominations in borne missionary 
work, a better temper and more intelligent attitude toward 
what is best in modern scientific thought, a revival of practi- 
cal righteousness, a fine sense of personal honor in all the 
complex relations of modern life that shall compel the respect 
and secure the imitation of all beholders because the spirit of 
this world never has. never can counterfeit it, a consecration 
of the wealth and culture of these days of prosperity and peace 
which shall equal in measure and quality the sacrifices of the 
Fathers and make us able to catch the spirit as well as repeat 
the words of their pra3'ers and confessions, — such are some of 
the demands made upon the church of Christ in our day, 
demands which I need not say in this presence are reasonable, 
earnest, imperative. "NVe must meet them or the fire which 
will try every man's work will find nothing in the edifices 
built by this self-sufficient generation but wood, hay and stub- 
ble easily consumed and leaving as a residue only ashes. 

Can the churches of our order do a part of this needed work 
for which the world waiteth? I believe that they can, that 
their history, their equipment is inferior to none: that they 
have the courage to fight again if needs be on historic fields, 
and the zeal to press eagerly into new regions. 



Mr. Ives. We now have the pleasure of an address from 
Dr. Henry M. Booth. I do not know as his name appears upon 
our church roll, but his father was for many years a member 
of the church, and others of the family have been members 
here. We are glad to welcome him. 

THE GERMINAL PRINCIPLES OF THE PILGRIMS. 

Rev. Henry M. Booth. D.D. 

There is but one reason why I should speak at this time, 
aud that reason suggests an appropriate theme. From the 
first day until now, men of my name and blood have been 
members of the church of Stratford. In the year 1641, Mr. 



108 

llichard Bootlie, an honored ancestor, was here, as an active 
participant in public aft'airs. and there is no reason to doubt 
that he was present, also, in 1639, when this organization was 
effected. My father, Mr. William A. Booth, and my uncle. 
Mr. Charles H. Booth, whose hoary heads are crowns of glory, 
as they are found among us still in the Avay of righteousness, 
were instrumental in the erection of the beautiful Sanctuary, 
Avhich has opened its doors to receive this interesting celebra- 
tion. The bright, summer days of my own childhood Avere 
familiar with the river and the brooks, the meadows and the 
forests, which seem to have been made, by our considerate 
Father in Heaven, for the especial hapi^iness of an active boy. 

I am here, therefore, in a representative attitude. The 
church of Stratford has a right to claim my presence ; and I 
am honored by the courteous invitation, which has given me 
this ojiportunity of speech. 

As descendants of the Pilgrims, we revere the intelligence, 
the virtue and the piety, which have made our life a possi- 
bility. Those principles were germinal. Other men labored, 
and we have entered into their labors. Ours is the harvest, 
while theirs was the seed-time. Degeneracy is not evident ; 
but progress. The past is never honored b}^ insisting upon 
the immorality and irreligion of the the present, the decline 
of integrity and the prevalence of vice. It is to the credit of 
the husbandman that his planting yields an hundredfold. 
The flinty seed is a prophecy, which the full corn in the ear 
must interpret. Until experience becomes a teacher, no one 
can imagine whereunto this strange thing will grow. "That 
which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, 
but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other 
grain, but God giveth it a body, as it hath pleased him, and 
to every seed his own body." It is so with principles. Men 
discover them, and announce them. They drop into the soil 
of human nature, where they germinate. The future exhibits 
their quality in freedom, law, and godly living ; and then turns 
back to crown the wise men. who aforetime went forth weejD- 
ing, bearing precious seed. 

This then is our conviction. The former days were not 



109 



better tb.n the.e. We do not wi.h to exchange 1889. n any 
p rticular, fo. 1639. A decade of life „o,v mean« mo,, tan 
a baU century did then. We have a ^ider out-look a mo.e 
Inerous synnmthy, a clearer intelligence, a stronger faith- 
!nd his is true, because the Pilgrin>s .ere the men of Gods 
::iecti™, lo crossed the broad Atlantic .ith in,portant ge- 
minal principles. 

But\vhat were these principles^ We may name but tuo. 
alth >..h there were many others. Two, however, .e.e esp c- 
•ally pronnnent in the great and decisive strnggle of I'uutan- 
itm which explains the migrations of the 1 .Igrnns The 
d vmlauthority of the Holy Bible, and the nght of personal 
rty'^the sight of God were beliefs, which these hero.c 
e he d againsi argun.ents and threats and perseeul.ons m 
the dd worid. To Them the Holy Bible was the duect mes- 
Ite of Almighty God. They accepted it without con,pro- 
ufse lUvas the one-and often the only-vohnne m then- 
dwellings. They read it at the firesides, dnrmg the long, 
IT, desolate winters; and they talked about .t to then- ch Id- 
re and ncghbours until its historical facts and subhme doc- 
nl had taken complete possession of then- .mnds. -'To 
pLes," says Mr. John Fiske in his recent valuable essay on 
he " Beginnings of New England," "they went for dady m^ 
struction and comfort, with its strange sem.trc names, they 
bapHzed their children, upon its precepts, too often nusnnder- 
stood and misapplied, they sought to build ap a rule of hie 
hat might raise them above the crude and unsatisfying woUd 
to whtch they were born." We snnle, as - -ad some f 
their interpretations. We wonder, as ™» /f .«-"' '^ "« ° 
reproduce in New England the mistaken Judaism of the Im.e 
of our Lord. But they were at work in a rich quarry They 
were advancing along safe lines. Immortal priiiciples, long 
Wed out of sight, long neglected by a lazy and a despotic 
priesthood, were discovered, and, later generations, enlight- 
ened by the Holy Spirit, could be trusted to separate the gold 
tom the quartz and to survey and map out t le new y dis- 
covered territory. Thus it came to pass that loyalty to the 
Holy Bible expressed itself, in 1C3C., by an appropriation of 



110 



£100, whieli the General Court of Massachusetts voted towards 
the establishment of a college at Newtown — " the first body 
in which the people by their representatives ever gave their 
own money to found a place of education " — and in 1630, in 
the Hartford Constitution, which "was the first written con- 
stitution known to history that created a government." Thus 
biblical truth secured an early prominence, in education and 
in politics, whose iutluence is still manifest, as, at this hour, 
great and distant territories are organizing to become States 
of the Republic. 

But personal liberty was cherished by the Pilgrims with an 
intensity, which matched their reverence for the Holy Bible. 
They would call no man Lord. The heart-searching Judge 
of all the earth was recognized, as the only Lord of the con- 
science. They gave up home and friendships to be free. 
They were, it is true, not as tolerant as they might have been. 
Liberty was personal, rather than social. They had not learned 
to measure other men by the Golden Rule, as they expected 
themselves to be measured. Differences of oj^inion awakened 
bitter antagonisms. They could not agree with Quakers and 
Episcopalians ; and they believed that they were discharging 
a duty, when they put an unsympathetic visitor into the 
streets. Roger Williams held views, which are now the views 
of most Christian patriots in our country; and so liberal a 
man, as Governor Winthrop, advised AVilliams that it would 
be safe for him to make his home among the Indians. No 
harsh judgment, however, need be passed upon this narrow- 
ness. Catholicity was a stranger to those times Indeed, we 
are just beginning to form an acquaintance with a genuine 
Catholicity. We do not burn and stone one another it is true, 
and yet our words are sometimes as hot as a flame, and as rough 
as brick-bats. We are still learning. Two hundred and fifty 
years have taught many lessons to an appreciative Christen- 
dom. Freedom of speech is the safety-valve, which has pre- 
vented frequent explosions. Gas is never very dangerous, if 
it is allowed to escape into the air. When it is confined, it 
threatens life and property. My claim to personal liberty 
covers your claim to the same inestimable privilege : and if I 



Ill 



demand that you should respect my freedom of conviction, so 
long as I behave myself in a lawful and an orderly manner, you 
may make similar demands of me. Thus toleration may be- 
come social liberty in all parts of this broad land. 

Holding ^firmly to these principals, our fathers, here m 
Stratford, associated themselves with the Hartford, or Con- 
necticut Colony which was then more liberal in its attitude 
than the nearer Colony of New Haven, in which none but 
church members were allowed a participation in the privileges 
of citizenship. They were husbandman, Avhose planting the 
generations have honored. The history of the church of 
Stratford is the abundant harvest, which we now contemplate 
with gratitude to God, and with admiration for his servants, 
our ancestors. But the end is not yet. Seed-time has not 
gone by forever. We, too, have duties, which are comparable 
to theirs The principles which we have received, are capable 
of further development. The Holy Bible is not exhausted. 
John Robinson's memorable remark about its contents is still 
in order. Liberty has grander triumphs to record. We are 
in the line of a noble succession. Those who come after us, 
may rise up, and call us blessed. Let us thank God for the 
opportunity ! Let us address ourselves to the rare and sacred 

privilege! 

On the famous rock at Plymouth in the Commonwealth of 
Massachusetts, a splendid monument was recently dedicated 
with impressive ceremonies. More than two centuries and a 
half had passed since the Pilgrims left the Mayflower and 
landed upon those shores. To commemorate the principles 
of that distinguished ancestry, the Plymouth monument is to 
stand through the centuries. Upon a granite pedestal, a 
sculptured figure of Faith is raised. In her left hand, there 
is an open Bible, while with her right hand she points up- 
ward to the divine source of all true inspiration. At her feet 
are statues of Education, Law, Morality, and Freedom-all 
reverently submissive to her firm, yet gentle authority. " Hon- 
ored names are on the pedestal, and sculptured tablets repre- 
sent the chief scenes of their career, the embarkation, the com- 
pact the landing, and the first treaty with the Indians; but 



112 



overshadowing all are the embodiments of those immutable 
principles, ^Yhich lifted them above the level of their priva- 
tions and disappointments, and enabled their heroic spii'its to 
soar with serene and constant poise in the higher atmosphere 
of faith and hope." 

The conception of the artist, so grandly expressed in granite 
language is an eloquent tribute to the Pilgrims and a sugges- 
tive lesson to their children. The faith, which studied the 
Holy Bible, and referred the interests of daily life to Him, 
who guides and judges righteously, delayed not to establish 
Education and Law, Morality and Freedom, in every new com- 
munity, which found a home on the banks of broad rivers, or 
in fertile valleys, or even amidst the forest shades. Faith in 
God and in the "Word of God secured these inestimable bles- 
sings, Avhen as yet the struggle for existence was a desperate 
conflict. The seed was planted, and the promise of the har- 
vest seemed far awa}'. But faith looks into the future. The 
distant is real, and often visible to faith. The Pilgrims were 
living for those, who should come after them. They left the 
impress of a holy faith upon institutions, which are essential 
to a civilized life. Theirs was the grand initiative; ours is 
the wise development; later centuries will enjoy the complete 
fruition. Elementary work at the beginning: carefnl disci- 
pline in the process ; a splendid order at the end. 

Education : A simple school-house then, commanding uni- 
versities now; a few books donated by Christian ministers 
then, the pi-ecious treasures of immense libraries in every con- 
siderable town now : a few studies then, divinity, medicine and 
law, the professions of learned men, a wealth of science and art 
and literature now, with men of learning in every important 
vocation ; instruction by teachers and ministers of religion then ; 
instruction now by the press in every use of the printed page. 
A marvellous advance ! A progress almost incredible ! - Look, 
with the eyes of John Harvard, who in 1638 left his library 
and the half of his estate to the feeble college at Newtown ; 
and then look with your own eyes at that college, now the 
University of Cambridge, with its corps of instructors, and 
its roll of students, and its magnificent history! What shall 



113 



the future be? What is before education in the coming years? 
"Who can predict? Certainly', there will be wisdom and safety 
in holding education in subordination to Faith, where it was 
placed by the Pilgrims in the early years. An education, Avhich 
considers all knowledge, and then brings its treasures to a 
Faith, whose gaze is Godward. is the pledge of the finest pro- 
duct of civilization, the perfect man in the likeness of Jesus 
Christ. With j-ou and with me, the active men of the present 
generation, rests a result, so desirable. Let us be faithful I 

Lav: Justice administered by council and governor then, 
by an alliance of church and State ; justice, conserved to-day by 
the most august tribunal in the world — the Supreme Court of 
the United States — from whose decisions there is no appeal, 
and seldom a desire to appeal. What shall the future be? 
Shall the dignity of law be maintained and increased? Is it 
possible to make respect for law equal to standing armies and 
large companies of police? Can Me hope that law, among a 
free people, will exercise so powerful an influence that offences 
will cease, and prisons will become useless? Surely, we shall 
be assisted in this desirable endeavor, if Faith has a recog- 
nized supremac}', in which the authority of the heart-search- 
ing God is impressed upon the citizen. Law may subdue the 
lawless, and record its triumphs in a virtuous social order, 
and then offer to Faith, whose gaze is Godward a happy peo- 
ple, whose God is the Lord. With you and with me, the 
active men of this generation, Law finds its dependence. Let 
us be faithful ! 

Morality: Stern, rigid, uncompromising then, more gen- 
tle, sympathetic, pervasive, j-es, and Christ-like now. The 
gain is evident. The morality of to day is not an easy expe- 
diency, which finds honesty the best policy and so is honest ; 
but it is an integrity, a purity, a catholicity, a nobility, which 
has never been equalled since the Sermon on the Mount was 
preached. This we aflSrm in the face of a complaisant pessi- 
mism, which is fond of criticizing public men and public 
measures, while abundantly satisfied with personal merit and 
individual attainment. But criticism can never be judicious, 
if it finds honesty only by standing before a looking-glass. 



114 



and iniquity always by going to the window to observe the 
crowded street. But while we thus speak, w^e are not content. 
Who can ever be content, if it is possible to be better than wc 
are? Morality calls for self-denying effort. There is nnich 
to be done. Faith must rule. God must become the author- 
ity. The Decalogue is a Statute-Book of perpetual obligation. 
Happy will it be for us, if our morality shall be so intimately 
associated with Faith, whose gaze is Godward, that the pres- 
sure of a divine obligation shall be felt, and the hope of a 
divine approval shall become an insi^iration. With you and 
with me, the active men of this generation, rests the morality 
of the coming years. Let us be faithful! 

And Freedoin: what shall we say of freedom? Jhe Fa- 
thers believed in a freedom, which has written many a dark 
and distressing chaj^ter of our nation's history. Our freedom 
is an advance upon theirs. AVe rebuke persecution: Ave call no 
man a slave: we frown upon bigotry: we welcome the op- 
pressed. Yet freedom, in many (quarters, is the synonym of 
license; and in many others, it is only a name, which covers 
cruel bigotry and wicked deeds. We have yet to jH'esent to 
the world a Freedom, Avhich is the expression of Education, 
Law, and Morality ; a Freedom, which utters its " Our Fa- 
ther" in daily prayer, and then considers "Our Brethren" in 
daily conduct; a Freedom, which looks up to Faith, whose 
gaze is Godward. and confesses that in the Holy Bible is to 
be found the liberty, wherewith Christ makes free. Thus the 
suggestion of the Fathers awaits its clear interpretation in the 
associated life of a great nation, whose strength and wealth 
are the evident dangers of an unexampled j^rosperit}-. To 
you and to me, the active men of this generation, God has 
committed this great trust. Let us be faithful, so that our 
fellow-men, in later years, may enjoy a Freedom, which will 
prove a perfect brotherhood. 

Thus we stand at the close of the years, so memorable. 
Looking back, we salute the honored sires, whose names we 
reverence, and whose deeds we prize: looking about us, we 
exhort our fellow-men, whose toil we share and whose fellow- 
ship we now enjoy: looking onward, we hail the generations 



iir, 



j'et unborn with promise and with hope, pledging- them the 
safe transmission of the fathers" principles, not as glitterino- 
gems, the same to-day as when first discovered, but as precious 
seed, planted and I'e-planted, and planted still again to sup- 
port the life of inan upon the earth and ever to vield a plant- 
ing for those who will be here in other years. 

The scene, brighter noAv than it was two hundred and. fifty 
years ago, will be ))righter two hundred and fifty years hence 
than it is to-day — and in this place, as elsewhere, the Lord of 
Life and Glory shall come, responsively to Faith, to pronounce 
his commendation upon Education, Law, Morality, and Free- 
dom, as exhibited in the laud to which the Pilgrims brought 
their germinal principles. 

" Down the dark future, thro' long generations, 
The echoing sounds grow fainter, and then cease. 
And like a bell, with solemn, sweet vibrations, 
I hear, once more, the voice of Christ say, ' Peace.' 

' Peace,' and no longer from its brazen portals 
The blast of war's rude organ .shakes the skies. 
But beautiful as songs of the immortals 
The holy melodies of love arise." 



Mr. Ives. Even the biightest day draws to its close; and 
so these most delightful exercises must be concluded. Let 
us join in singing the 155th hymn, after which the benediction 
will be pronounced by Mr. Holden, of the Olivet Church, 
Bridgeport. 



BENEDICTION. 

Rev. E. K. Holdex. 

And now may the Lord bless you and keej-) you. The Lord 
make His face shine upon you and be gracious unto you. Tlie 
Lord lift upon you the light of His countenance and give you 
peace. Amen. 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Congregational Church, Stratford, . 
Church Decorations. Looking West, 
Interior of Okl Church, 
Collation Tables at Town Hall, 
Church Decorations, Looking East, 
Old Congregational Churcli, 
Collection of Relics in Lecture Room, 



Frontispiece. 

!» 

38 

4.-) 

;(i 

9-3 

H2 



Note.— The Committee ou Publication are indebted to F. C. Beach, Esq., fc^r photo- 
graphs, and to Deacon R. B. Lacey for electrotype used in illustrating this book. 



CONTENTS 



Address, Historical, Rev. J. S. Ives, 

Of Welcome, liev. J, S. Ives, 
llev. William K. Hall, D.D., 
Rev. Frank S. Fitch, 
Rev. Henry M. Booth, D.D., 
Anniversary Hymn, Rev. J. S. Ives, 
Benediction, Rev. J. S. Ives, 

Rev. John G. Davenport, 
Rev. E. K. Ilolden, . 
Committees, List of . 
Commimion, ...... 

Greeting to the Children, etc.. Rev. William K. Hall, D.D. 

Rev. Frank S. Fitch. 
Prayer, Rev. G. F. Prentiss, 

Rev. C. R. Palmer, D.D., . 
Rev. William K. Hall, D.D., (Communion), 
Rev. Frank S. Fitch, (Communion), 
Rev. II. A. Davenport, (Blessing, Collation), 
Rev. G. W. Judson, 
Rev. Alfred E. Ives, 
Programme, ...... 

Reading of Scriptures, Rev. J. A. Freeman, 

Rev. Charles L. Pardee, . 
Response, Woodbury South, Rev. J. A. Freeman, 

First Church Bridgeport, Rev. C. R. Palmer, D.D. 

Newtown, Rev. J. P. Hoyt, 

Huntington, Rev. A. J. Park, . 

Trumhull, H. L. Fairchild, Esij , 

Monroe, Dea. W. Wells LcAvis, . 

Southbury, Rev. David C. Pierce, 

Bethlehem, Rev. J. P. Trowbridge, 

Washington, Dea. E. W. Woodruff. . 

South ]iritain, ^Ir. John Pierce. 

Woodbury North, Rev. J. L. R. Wyckoff. 

South Church. Bridgeport, Rev. B. G. S. :McNeil]c 

Park Street, Bridgeport, Rev. H. C. Ilovey, D.D , 

Olivet, Bridgeport, J. J. Rose, Esq.. . 

West End, Bridgeport, Dea. J. W. Northrop, 



P.4GE. 
IC. 

47 

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100 

107 

11 

44 

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11.-) 

5 

42 

48 

52 

12 

13 

42 

48 

4", 

4(j 

93 

7 

13 

93 

50 



61 
63 

65 
67 
69 

71 
74 
7<) 
79 

82 



a. 



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